Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse

Art Spiegelman has almost single-handedly brought comic books out of the toy closet and onto the literature shelves. In 1992, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his masterful Holocaust narrative Maus— which portrayed Jews as mice and Nazis as cats. Maus II continued the remarkable story of his parents’ survival of the Nazi regime and their lives later in America. Spiegelman co-founded RAW, the acclaimed avant-garde comics magazine, with his wife, Françoise Mouly—Maus was originally serialized in the pages of RAW. He and Mouly also co-edited Little Lit, a series of three comics anthologies for children published by HarperCollins (“Comics-They’re not just for Grown-ups Anymore”). He and Mouly started Toon Books, publishing easy to read comics for children. They co-edited the anthology A Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics, published by Abrams.

Spiegelman’s anthology, Breakdowns includes an autobiographical introduction almost as long as the book itself, entitled Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!. McSweeney’s published a collection of three of his sketchbooks entitled Be a Nose. His work has been published in many periodicals, including The New Yorker, where he was a staff artist and writer from 1993-2003. He also illustrated the 1928 lost classic, The Wild Party, by Joseph Moncure March. A major exhibition of his work was arranged by the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, as part of the “15 Masters of 20th Century Comics” exhibit. Art Spiegelman was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, he is also a laureate of the Art Director’s Club Hall of Fame. He was made an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France and—the American equivalent—played himself on an episode of “The Simpsons.”

In 2011, Art Spiegelman won the Grand Prix at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. A museum show, “Art Spiegelman’s Co-Mix: A Retrospective,” traveled Europe, Canada, and the US. The accompanying book is CO-MIX: A Retrospective of Comics, Graphics, and Scraps. He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received the Edward MacDowell Medal, the first-ever given in comic art. Art Spiegelman was awarded the 2022 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. The documentary directed by Molly Bernstein and Philip Dolin titled Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse! is now being shown theatrically and will later air on PBS American Masters.

Molly Bernstein, Producer/Director is the director and producer of Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay, a documentary that premiered at the New York Film Festival and received a wide theatrical release. The film was named one of Entertainment Weekly’s top 10 films of 2013 and aired on the PBS series American Masters. She also directed An Art That Nature Makes: The Work of Rosamond Purcell, which played in over 20 theaters nationwide and was released on DVD by Kino Lorber. Bernstein has had an extensive career as an editor with credits including the 2009 Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance About, also featured on the American Masters series. She has recently produced and directed many short films with Particle Productions on various subjects such as contemporary artists and art collectors around the world for the James Cohan Gallery, VIP Art Fair and Christie’s. Most recently, she produced and directed The Show’s The Thing: The Legendary Promoters of Rock, a feature documentary about the creation of the live rock show in the late 60’s and 70’s. This film premiered at DOC NYC. 

Philio Dolin, Producer/Director has produced and directed over 100 films about art, architecture, dance, the environment and many other subjects. His clients have included universities, non-profit organizations, art galleries, museums and a variety of businesses. He started out producing hip-hop videos in the early ‘90s for rap artists Salt-N Pepa, MC Lyte, Hurby “Luv Bug” Azor and many others. He was recently the executive producer and cinematographer of An Art That Nature Makes: The Work of Rosamond Purcell. He was also a producer of Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay, which was named one of the top ten films of 2013 by Entertainment Weekly. He recently directed and produced the feature documentary The Show’s The Thing: The Legendary Promoters of Rock, which The Hollywood Reporter called “essential viewing for anyone interested in music industry history.”