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The Buffalo News
A SENSE OF DARKNESS AND DRAMA IN COBER'S ART
REVIEW Alan E. Cober: A Retrospective
Afterlife |
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Illustrations by the late illustrator and long-time
visiting artist at the University at Buffalo. University at Buffalo Art Gallery, Center for the Arts, UB North Campus,
Amherst. Through May 18.
Like most of the drawings, engravings and sculptures in "Alan E.
Cober: A Retrospective Afterlife," these darkly humorous hallucinogenic
visions can only be described as, well, Kafkaesque. And like Kafka, Cober
returns throughout his career to familiar motifs and themes, incorporating
into his art all manner of skulls, limbs, menacing machines, pig snouts and
medieval demons. His fascination with mental and physical decay, compassion
for social issues, and penchant for biological permutations form the thread
that runs throughout his prolific career, including time spent in Buffalo. Cober became a visiting professor in the UB Art Department in 1987,
drawing national recognition to the illustration program with his innovative
teaching approach and distinguished reputation. His award-winning work
appeared prominently in publications including Time, Newsweek and the New
York Times, in addition to numerous books. He is often described as an
innovator for infusing illustration with modernist sensibilities. His intense
linear detail, skewed figures and unsentimental approach are reminiscent of
German expressionists such as Otto Dix and George Grosz. Cober's early illustrations were straight text depictions rendered in a
jaunty linear style characteristic of the period, but by the 1970s his work
began to assume an edgy quality in form and content. An ink and watercolor
series titled "Assignation of Martin Luther King Jr." is disturbing
not only for its unflinching treatment of the subject, but also because of
its chilling "you are there" perspective. One example, titled "From King's Point Of View," has the
observer looking over the slain civil rights leader's shoulder toward the
assailant at the moment of impact. So dramatic is this compositional device
that it nearly prompts the viewer to flinch. In a show that mixes illustration with fine art, the distinction is
frequently clear. "Mike Milken I, II, III," for instance, depicts
the junk bond king as a money junkie inserting cash into his slotted arm
until currency volcanically erupts from his head. Despite the self-contained
wit, the illustration cries out for text. Conversely, Cober's fine art stands
on its own, even as it functions as illustrations for his own life. This sense of self-revelation is reinforced by the exhibition's thematic
arrangement, which underscores contextual relationships between works. One
poignant example involves "The Boys I-V," five ceramic figurines
similar to calacas used in celebrating the Mexican holiday Days of the Dead.
The skeletal-like dolls incorporate milagros - healing charms - as prosthetic
limbs. Nearby is an ink and watercolor self-portrait completed near the end of
Cober's life. He wears a shirt patterned with images from his art, and paints
one of the figurines as he stares earnestly at the viewer through withered
features. The look says, "This is who I am."
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