Charles Addams Beckons Art Lovers

Comics Fine Art — March 6, 2010 at 7:35 Share

The Museum Of The City Of New York has mounted an exhibition of its large collection of Charles Addams cartoons. Addams, who died in 1988, was a long time New Yorker cartoonist, who’s work inspired the sixties television show THE ADDAMS FAMILY.

A review in the NEW YORK TIMES warns us that “Addams, in his mischief, makes the illicit an enchanting, almost whimsical aspect of daily life; we descend into his realm with the same half grin as that doomed office worker, our darker natures finding pleasure in allusions to misery. We enter a world so perverse even wind-up toys commit suicide, bitter matrons ask in department stores to be directed to “blunt instruments,” and beams of light bearing divine illumination stream from the heavens only to shine on television antennas.”

Slide show.

Tags: Charles Addams, New Yorker