Robert Crumb is the world's most famous underground cartoonist. So much so that the 72-year-old doesn't really count as 'underground' any more, having long ago left the countercultural 'comix' scene and moved into the realm of art galleries. Along the way, his subject matter has expanded too, from his original, acid-fried strips of the 1960s, through documentary forays into the lives of obscure blues musicians and Kafka, to his recent magisterial, comic-book version of the Book of Genesis.
One aspect that hasn't changed much over time, though, is his sexual fantasies. Crumb has always been the most lascivious of artists, happy to give full rein to his erotic imagination. And it's very particular type of woman he goes for: muscular, beefy, posteriorly ample. Think, essentially, Serena Williams. At the start of his career, his fetishistic caricatures were often regarded as misogynistic. But in his 'Art & Beauty' series, produced from the mid-'90s onwards and shown in its near entirety here, his vision of women is much more respectful, even reverential.
Read more at Time Out London.