24. März - 1.

April 07

richard mcguire
Reduced to the core

Richard McGuire is a multi-talent who was born in 1957 in New Jersey and now lives in Paris and New York. He was the
“Liquid Liquid” base player back in the early eighties, a band whose dark mix of punk, no wave and funk he heavily
influenced. McGuire is also equally as innovative as a comic artist, illustrator and children’s book author, he designs logos,
characters, toys, dolls and websites, and has also been causing havoc over the last few years with his minimalist animated
films. In everything that he does, he seems to impress through strictness, an infallible sense for reduction and intellectual
substance. Form, content and opinion all have the same value in Richard McGuire’s work.

It was 1989 when McGuire first shot to fame in the comic world after one single piece of his was released in Art Spiegelman’s
RAW magazine. “Here” was not only one of the most bizarre and abstract comics ever, but “revolutionised the narrative
possibilities of comics” (Chris Ware in “Comic-Art” magazine) with a completely unique handling of time and space: “Here”
is a six page story about a lounge room corner, taking place somewhere between the years 500 957 406 073 (before we
measured time) and 2033. Richard McGuire takes fragments from the inhabitants’ lives but then replaces the story’s
chronology with a montage of various points in time and time spans which actually overlap in some of the comic’s panels.

Maybe “Here” was such a defined statement in comic-form, that Richard McGuire couldn’t possibly see a way in which he
could go on and explore this point further – he left that then to people like Chris Ware (an artist who continually admits the
huge influence of which McGuire has had on him). Richard McGuire then wandered into other areas (with equally as much
success), like the awards at children’s book-salons, animation festivals and a number of design awards all confirm. Maybe
Chris Ware was right when he wrote: “Personally, I think he’s a genius”.

Christian Gasser

Bibliography “Here” (last printed in “Comic Art 8”), “P + O” (2002, Cornélious), “What’s Wrong With This Book” (1997,
Viking Books), “Night Becomes Day” (1994, Viking Books).

Films “Micro Loup” (in “Loulou et autres loups”, 2003)

Illustrations The New Yorker, New York Times, Times Magazine etc.

partner of the exhibition

THANKS Castelli Silvestro Schriften & Reklame | Roli Fischbacher | Kunstmuseum Luzern