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Art - Clint
Langley’s Carnival
In Italy, Spain and France comic book design
is highly considered amongst highly discerning people. In
the UK it is usually thought to be, at best, a sub-art. Which
is why it is fascinating to see the work of Clint Langley
being exhibited in the Star Gallery. Framed, well-lit, on
white walls, up there for careful consideration. Like…
Well, like art. I meet Clint in his studio in Lewes a few
days before his opening. “People have to get across
two barriers when they are considering my work,” he
says. “The first is that it is printed in comic books,
the second is that it is computer generated. I wonder what
they are thinking. I mean you still need to move your hand.
You still need… vision.” Clint works for the long-running
sci-fi magazine 2000AD. Most of the works in the exhibition
are from the story Slaine, written by Pat Mills, largely set
in Dark Ages Ireland.
Langley has many influences, from Don Lawrence, creator of
the Trigan Empire series in Look and Learn Magazine,
to Francisco Goya. One of the pictures in the exhibition looks
uncannily like Millais’ Ophelia. “I love
the Pre-Raphaelites,” he says. His work shows the same
attention to detail that Waterhouse, Millais and Rosetti displayed
in the Victorian era. It creates a mood, it makes you stop
and think. It takes you back to another world. But is it art?
We urge you to pop into this exhibition and judge for yourselves.
AL
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