LONDON, UK.- The Whitechapel Art Gallery presents Robert Crumb – A Chronicle of Modern Times, on view through May 22, 2005. The ‘father of underground comics’, ‘Bruegel of our time’ and ‘non-aligned political crank’ are just some of the many labels attributed to cartoonist Robert Crumb over the last 40 years. In the tradition of earlier social commentators George Grosz and Otto Dix, or English caricaturists such as George Cruikshank and James Gillray, Crumb’s work has shocked, entertained and challenged the imaginations of generations of readers.

The Whitechapel’s exhibition is the most comprehensive presentation to date of Crumb’s career as one of the most influential cartoonists of the last 40 years. Born in Philadelphia in 1943, Crumb never studied art but began drawing homemade comic books and greeting cards from an early age, In 1967, he moved to San Francisco where he invented some of his most enduring LSD-inspired characters, including Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural, Schuman the Human and Flakey Foont. Crumb instantly became a counter-cultural icon whose sexually explicit satirical cartoons provided a visual expression of the time.

His output since 1967 has been colossal, with the LSD-inspired work of the 1960s giving way to relatively sober, introspective dialogues and biting indictments of American culture.

Crumb remains a highly controversial figure with hard-hitting and politically incorrect work that has provided a hero for marginalized non-conformists. It is his ability to make late 20th century culture as accessible for readers as for critics that has ensured both his popularity and his place as the only counter-culture cartoonist from the 1960s to break into the art world.