George Horner

 

Merch

My interview with Mark Newgarden in The Comics Journal:

http://www.tcj.com/an-incoherent-chat-with-george-horner/

Order Incoherent Comic Books here:

https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/artist/32308

or contact me directly to order books or buy artworks:

georgehornerprojects@gmail.com


Incoherents is an artist book in the form of a comic book. Each page was originally torn out of a vintage (Golden & Silver Age) comic book and then painted in a redacting fashion, obscuring and abstracting text and images. I currently have over 600 pages completed. I selected 40 pages and had them printed back in a comic book–coming around full circle. The paper is newsprint, the same type of paper old comic books were printed on. Silly Putty will lift these images from the page, a true litmus test for old comic books! Frankenstein is on the cover (from an ad in a comic book) to represent bringing back to life old, “dead” comic book pages.“

The book contains many art references:

Squares and Cubes: Picasso, Braque, Russian Constructivists. Nonsense and free association: The Incoherents, Dada and Surrealism. The Bottle of Kandor: Mike Kelley. Trash: Art Povera. Blue painter & Judo: Yves Klein. Floating Basketball: Jeff Koons. Mona Lisa: di Vinci / The Incoherents of Paris / Marcel Duchamp. Television: Nam June Paik. Mutt: Duchamp’s Fountain of 1917 (100 year anniversary). Black on Black: Incoherents / Malevich / Ad Reinhardt / Rauschenberg. Hair: Chicago’s Imagists / The Hairy Who. Square Dog: The Mutt Cubists. Suitcases/ Baggage: Alan Belcher / Donald Baechler. Hamburger: E. C. Segar & Wimpy. Text and Word Play: Duchamp/ Jasper Johns / Ed Ruscha / Lettrism. CRASH (BOOM POW BANG): Onomatopoeia / Pop Art / Graffiti.  Superman & Comic Book Imagery: Curt Swan, Jess, Erro, Pop Art. Odd Children’s Drawings & Monsters: Dubuffet / Enrico Baj / Baechler. Mushrooms: Psychedelic art of the 60s. Z: Maurizio Cattelan’s Zorro paintings after Fontana

“Continuing from my last book, Incoherents, this new publication is also an artist book in the form of a vintage comic book. This time it is a flip book meaning there are two books in one. Read until the images are upside down then flip the book over and start over. Each page was originally torn out of an old comic book and then collaged and painted in a redacting fashion, obscuring and abstracting the images. The first part of the book is titled Incoherents 2, Marcel Duchamp Series, which commemorates the 50th anniversary of Marcel Duchamp’s death in 1968. These pages originally came from adult cartoon magazines and comic books from the 1960s when the sexual revolution was in full force and most cartoons depicted large breasted women with men in sexual situations. These cartoons struck me as being able to refer to Duchamp’s nudes and brides and bachelors in funny and very odd ways. Many of the final pages have the initials -M.D.” in them which could refer to Marcel Ducharnp or Medical Doctor (my father was a doctor) or they could refer to something else entirely… The second half is titled UBU, Merdre Series, after Alfred Jarry’s famous character, Ubu Roi or King Ubu or King Turd, who personified all that was brutal, stupid, and morally and politically corrupt around 1900, in France. Merdre or shitr is the first word Ubu spoke on stage in Alfred jarry’s play, Ubu Roi. This word caused a riot. Ubu is a bully and a braggart who thinks himself superior to all others but who in reality is a buffoon. Ubu also feels sorry for him self and thinks everyone is against him so he sheds crocodile tears of self-pity. Ubu is still a potent symbolic character for our own time. Most of these pages came from vintage Little Lulu and Tubby comic book covers. Those titles were easily altered to become UBU. The three UBU portraits included are of Ringo, Ricky Nelson and Roy Orbison. Their names begin with the letter R and that might refer to the extra R Alfred Jarry added to the word “Merde” thus creating “Merdre” and a Riot. Give him a toothpick.

Contact for availability & price: georgehornerprojects@gmail.com