Off Topic: Museum of Contemporary Art

Occasionally I veer off topic to cover something arguably related to Minimates. In this Off Topic I talk about the current exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

Yesterday I went to see the current exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) called Masters of American Comics. I was very excited because the advertisements featured the work of Jack Kirby who co-created with Stan Lee such Marvel mainstays as The Hulk, The Avengers, and The Fantastic Four. The exhibit runs through March 12th, so it ends about a week before the Wizard World Los Angeles convention kicks off.

I had a lot of high hopes for this exhibit. Imagine comic book artists finally getting the respected art treatment in a contemporary museum! I couldn't wait to go.

Unfortunately, the exhibit turned out to be a bust. While it did feature a lot of work by Jack Kirby and other early comic book artists, I found the entire exhibit to be very boring. The work displayed was primarily ink or pencil panels. Some were lettered, and none were colored save for an occasional reproduction of a Fantastic Four cover.

After viewing the exhibit I left thinking about the comic book art which inspires many of the Minimates I collect. The art form has grown and morphed so significantly (movies, merchandise, appareal) over the years that a sterile museum really doesn't give it justice. Comic book art is so alive and vibrant, a boring museum just isn't the proper place for it.

So if you find yourself in Los Angeles in March, I recommend skipping the MOCA exhbit and instead going to the Wizard World Los Angeles convention. Leave the sterile elitist museums to the Michelangelos of the world.