Drawing/Printmaking: "Art Is…" Drawings/Relief Prints   February 2008

Art is… is a series consisting of 20 images based loosely on a comic strip from the 1970s. The story goes something like this:

An illustrator from New Zealand named Kim Grove is on her second marriage. Something inside suggests that poor communication was the reason her first marriage failed. Her new husband is an Italian lawyer named Stefano Casali. A language barrier between the two makes this problem of communicating even more apparent, and the couple’s relationship is on unstable ground.

Grove becomes pregnant and resolves to make this second marriage a success. Using her illustrating talent she begins to draw stupid little cartoons of naked cherubs oversimplifying the complexities of love. Love is… being able to say you’re sorry. These stupid little drawings became one of the longest running internationally syndicated comic strips in newspaper history.

Our version of this comic strip is called Art is… and through this series we attempt to oversimplify some of the more profound notions in contemporary art in Kim-Casali-fashion using somewhat obtuse single lines of text.
Art is… sometimes just a pipe. Art is… often the result of a deep-rooted sense of self sacrifice. Art is… difficult to explain to the living.

Each of our drawings features a contemporary artwork, for example "Art is… contextualized by its surroundings." shows the comic strip cherubs dressed as Vanessa Beecroft models in the lobby of the Guggenheim, while "Art is… difficult to explain to the living. " features one of the cherub figures with his head covered in gold-leaf donning a Joseph Beuys vest and cradling a dead hare.