Vader Kozak 1894 - 1959

Curator: Here we have 'Vader Kozak', an early comic strip made with pen, ink and paint on paper around the turn of the century. The narrative plays out in a grid, similar to woodblock prints I've seen. What strikes you about its composition? Editor: Well, the way the figures are drawn reminds me a little of folk art. I notice the composition feels almost Medieval because figures repeat throughout. It’s interesting that some of the same figures show up in subsequent scenes in the artwork; that makes it easy to follow the storyline of this comic strip. How would you interpret that visual element? Curator: We might see that compositional strategy in terms of "simultaneous narrative," a device found frequently in medieval and early Renaissance art. It invites us to decode each frame according to a system of repetition and variation. See, for example, how the whiteness of the paper evokes a snowy landscape, but the ground remains flat, stage-like. Each scene occurs on the same symbolic plane. The narrative logic depends not on realism but on symbolic ordering. Does that tell us anything about how to see each panel as a unit unto itself? Editor: It shows each section or stage of the comic strip carries an independent meaning for what the artist is trying to create with their use of the figures within. You're drawing attention to the fact that it's less about trying to create reality and more about how they were laid out on the piece of paper. Curator: Precisely! We might therefore want to begin to question the relationship of text to image here, for each caption also constitutes its own sealed-off system of meaning. The artist, or author, clearly worked within very firm conceptual boundaries. Editor: It really calls attention to how different storytelling was way back then, like very theatrical or more formalized somehow!