Excitement is mounting in the CBTR office for Somerset House’s upcoming GOOD GRIEF, CHARLIE BROWN! Celebrating Snoopy and The Enduring Power of Peanuts exhibition and programme of associated events.
Created by American artist Charles M. Schulz, Peanuts’ recurring themes of failure, love and loss and its commentary on issues such as war, racism, feminism and gender-fluidity – told through the prism of child-like characters in bitesize comic strips – resonate as much in 2018 as when they were first printed. Alongside Charles M. Schulz’s original drawings, a host of eminent figures from the worlds of art, fashion and music will contribute works and collections to the exhibition, offering fresh perspectives on the compelling comic strip and showing how Peanuts has personally spoken to them. Contributors include fashion designer Kim Jones, street artist KAWS, Turner Prize winner Helen Marten and Turner Prize finalist Fiona Banner, and musician Mira Calix.
In a new interactive installation, artist Marcus Coates (previously featured on Caught by the River) invites the public to pose their ‘life questions’ at a reimagining of Lucy’s psychiatry stand (Who Knows?). Unlike Lucy’s charge of 5¢, the advice dispensed will be free, but could be as equally as direct, depending on who your talk therapist may be. A set of ‘counsellors’ will sit in at specified times during the exhibition, consisting of people of various backgrounds and life experiences and could include anyone from a judge, ex-offender, recovering alcoholic, quantum physicist, religious leader – or even a professional psychiatrist – who will all bring different perspectives to the predicaments put forward.
Somerset House will also present a rich programme of spin-off events, taking place at lunchtimes, evenings and weekends. Charles M. Schulz’s widow and founder of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, Jean Schulz, will start the series by sitting in conversation with contributing artist and lifelong Peanuts fan Andy Holden (also previously featured on Caught by the River) on the opening day of the exhibition, 25 October. (N.B. – the series of exhibitions Andy has just announced to be taking place in his Bedford studio are also well worth a look).
GOOD GRIEF, CHARLIE BROWN! Celebrating Snoopy and The Enduring Power of Peanuts marks the 70th anniversary of Charles M. Schulz’s iconic character Charlie Brown. Peanuts ran daily until 2000, with Schulz producing 17,897 strips in total. At its height, it was syndicated to over 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries and translated into 21 languages, reaching a readership of 355 million people worldwide.
The exhibition runs from 25 October 2018 – 3 March 2019.
More information and tickets are available here.