Graphic Radicals is a 30th anniversary retrospective of World War 3 Illustrated, an independently published political comic magazine founded in 1980 by artists Seth Tobocman and Peter Kuper. Comprised of original comics drawings and paintings, posters, commissioned murals, documentary film, anima... Read more
Graphic Radicals is a 30th anniversary retrospective of World War 3 Illustrated, an independently published political comic magazine founded in 1980 by artists Seth Tobocman and Peter Kuper. Comprised of original comics drawings and paintings, posters, commissioned murals, documentary film, animation and a complete set of issues, Graphic Radicals will be the largest World War 3 Illustrated exhibition to date and will highlight the history that the magazine has scrutinized, documented, and participated in for three decades.
World War 3 Illustrated was first established in response to the Iran hostage crisis and impending election of Ronald Reagan and since then has confronted social and political issues ignored by the mainstream press. The magazine is an annual publication produced by a collective of artists in response to a particular theme. World War 3 Illustrated has covered topics as diverse as the Tompkins Square Riot, homelessness, first-person accounts of 9/11, the prison industrial complex, a teachers’ strike in Mexico, Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts and, in the upcoming issue, the food chain. Critic Lucy Lippard wrote of World War 3 Illustrated that its “ecological and social prophecies are coming to pass, and the apocalyptic vision that gives WW3 its desperate force and unique identity is the present."
This retrospective exhibition is the culmination of nearly two decades of collaboration with Exit Art to bring comic art to a wider audience. Exit Art was a pioneer in giving art world recognition to the medium of comics with its groundbreaking exhibition Comic Power (1993). Exit Art presented an exhibition of original art from World War 3 Illustrated’s 25th anniversary issue in 2005.
