National Gallery of Art Acquires Comics
The National Gallery of Art has received some new acquisitions, including a collection of underground comic books.
Collected by Abigail and William Gerdts, the 176 comic books were given to the gallery and are the first comics to be a part of the gallery’s permanent collection. The comics published between 1964 and 1977 influenced major modern artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.
The acquisition was approved October 2 by the museum’s board of trustees. The collection includes the museum’s first work by Robert Crumb and is bookended by important issues of Zap Comix, founded by Crumb in 1967, and Arcade: The Comics Revue, published a decade later.
