Tom McGee's Blog

V. and I headed into NYC today, with the aim of revisiting (in my case) and visiting (in his) the fabled High Line. Today’s Times had a review of a showing of R. Crumb’s illustrations for the Book of Genesis in Chelsea, and we decided that would be a worthy show to visit on the way.

The Times had the wrong address. Detour.

We strolled by the Church of the Guardian Angel, which seemed appropriate.

The David Zwirner Gallery is on street level on 19th Street, and looks like it was once a very large garage.

Something like 371 original page drawings were hung in sequence on the walls, covering every word of the first book of the Bible.

From the creation, to Adam and Eve and the expulsion from the Garden.

Cain and Abel, Noah and the Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, through Abraham and Isaac, down through Joseph establishing the rest of the family in Egypt.

Crumb’s introduction:

The book was published several years ago, but it was very interesting to see the originals. I could have spent a couple hours there going over every frame.