Museum of Degenerates is a lush showcase of Eli Valley’s critically-acclaimed art capturing America in a state of ongoing cataclysm and making the provocative case that the entire political class has been complicit in the reactionary waves currently overwhelming the country. Unlike most political cartoons, Valley’s art is a howl of rage against the political, cultural and media elites driving America into an authoritarian abyss.
Inspired in equal measure by early 20th century Yiddish cartoon art, Weimar-era expressionist woodcuts, and the free-for-all lunacy of early MAD comics, Valley’s distinctive style has energized the left and enraged the most worthy targets of our time. No single artist has captured our new era in all its horror and grotesquerie quite like Valley, whose comics have served as both mirror and lightning rod for a country in crisis.
Museum of Degenerates highlights Valley’s art, both black and white and full-color masterworks, from the past seven years of American strife. Including rare works and art appearing in print for the first time, the collection will be framed by notes on individual drawings as well as a lengthy introduction in which Valley explores his personal artistic vision in a time of unprecedented national crisis and links his work to earlier periods of antifascist art. Museum of Degenerates will feature some of the most indelible images from any artist working today, available in one place for the first time.
