Her disdain for the “elitist and horrible” art scene in New York drove her to leave Cooper Union, where she had been studying, for the University of Arizona. “My desire to do comics was, instead of doing art for rich people, I wanted to do art that people read on the toilet,” Kominsky-Crumb says. Her comics often tackled social taboos and women’s sexuality head-on. 'Goldie in Fanatic Female Frustration' features one of Kominsky-Crumb’s alter egos. “It was very anti-bourgeois and anti-establishment.” She stopped shaving, experimented with free love and drugs, and felt alive. “Dream House” also traces Kominsky-Crumb’s escape from Long Island to New York City, where she took art classes and leaned into the freewheeling, bohemian lifestyle of the 1960s. “I was very much an outsider and I developed a critique of that world at a very young age,” she says. Growing up, she never felt like she fit in-she was always too big, too Jewish, too poor. I had to get that stuff out,” Kominsky-Crumb told. The depiction of her upbringing, especially her parents, is brutal. COURTESY OF KAYNE GRIFFIN CORCORANĪ highlight of the show is “Dream House,” a 30-page cartoon that traces Kominsky-Crumb’s life from her miserable childhood in a middle-class Jewish household on Long Island through her meeting Robert and relocating to France along with their daughter Sophie in the 1990s.

In 'Dream House,' Kominsky-Crumb offers an unsparing look back on her dysfunctional childhood and how it shaped her adult life. Be honest: Whom among us hasn’t wondered how many calories are in a cheese enchilada while sitting on the toilet? Kominsky-Crumb’s work also feels relatable in its raunchiness, especially now that most of us are homebound, horny, and desperate for distraction. Her signature black-and-white scratchy cartoons can provoke a strong reaction, but they’re also unexpectedly warm, in the way that it’s comforting to see submerged parts of yourself finally laid bare. The exhibit features works spanning her prolific 50-year career, including mixed-media drawings alongside her comics. Luckily, the show lives on digitally through an online viewing room, where all 19 of the works can be seen from the safety and comfort of home. The show opened in the gallery’s physical space just as the rapid spread of COVID-19 wiped out group gatherings and much of public life. Kominsky-Crumb, 72, is the subject of a solo exhibition at Kayne Griffin Corcoran gallery in Los Angeles, running through May 9.

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