Born in Philadelphia in 1943, Crumb spent a great deal of his youth creating homemade comics with his older brother Charles. In the 1960s, while working as a commercial illustrator in Cleveland, Crumb submitted individual and collaborative drawings to fanzines and underground newspapers. Energized by the success of these early artistic experiences, he moved in 1967 to San Francisco, the center of the countercultural movement. In 1968 he self-published the first issue of Zap Comix, the popularity of which made him a cult figure in the burgeoning underground comix scene. Zap soon included the work of other cartoonists, including Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso, and S. Clay Wilson, and later Gilbert Shelton, Spain Rodriguez, and Robert Williams, now icons in the field. "Why R. Crumb’s Provocative Drawings of Women Are an Antidote to Beauty Stereotypes" Artsy Editorial, By Charlotte Jansen, Apr 18, 2016 Robert Crumb is obsessed with women. At the age of 72, the artist (who goes by the pen name R. Crumb), continues to draw them prolifically and passionately, and with the same provocative appeal as at the start of his career as a cartoonist in the 1960s. Crumb’s portrayals of women in 2016 are still deeply divisive, but they also interact in an intriguing new way with the current discourse on beauty.... In the 2 decades that have passed since Crumb started "Art & Beauty", the canons of female beauty have diversified, but now perhaps more than ever, our society is obsessed with policing, controlling, defining, and subduing women’s bodies.... His work has never been about conforming to others’ ideals, and in pursuing his own tastes, he’s often alienated himself. “Robert really does not have a filter,” Morris explains. “What you see is a hyper-honest account of his desires and fantasies.”... ...Although he never studied art, his first job was drawing the "Hi-Brow" line of humorous... (http://www.askart.com/artist_bio/Robert_R_Crumb_Crumb/64739/Robert_R_Crumb_Crumb.aspx) undefined

More on Google