Comic Art Review: ‘Hot or Not?’ by Jessica Campbell, from Drawn+Quarterly

Hot or Not

Hot or Not: 20th Century Male Artists by Jessica Campbell, published by Drawn and Quarterly, poses a distinct question of art criticism: Were the artists themselves hot or not? Campbell, a fine-artist and educator at a variety of institutions in addition to her position as Assistant Professor of Visual Art at York University in Toronto, carries the tongue-in-cheek question across dozens of artists with hilarious commentary, all the while drawing critique itself into question.

The premise of Hot or Not is straightforward. Campbell presents first a work of art such as the cartoonish squiggles of Cy Twombly or a still life by Morandi, reproduced in her comic style with bold, broad ink-strokes. The reader flips the page to find a portrait of the artist himself with Campbell’s judgment on his own appearance.

Her descriptions range from P.E. Borduas as a “not” with the comment that “Edgar Allan Poe cosplay was big in 20^th-century Quebec” to Alex Calder’s “hot” as “a young Donald Sutherland, son-in-law of the Canadian Healthcare System.” Across categories of Canadian art, abstract art, expressionism, and eroticism, Campbell reviews numerous artists not only for their style but for their looks. In her conclusion, she encourages the audience to do further research on other artists to answer that age-old question of hotness, though she recognizes the tragedy that we may never know if artists living before photography were truly hot or not.

In addition to the humor, Hot or Not serves as “an essential introduction to the art of the twentieth century,” as stated in the introduction by Leslie Barnardiston FitzRoy, chief curator at the Museum of Modern & Contemporary Western Art, Rotterdam. While readers may recognize the careful block arrangements of Mondrian, the primitive takes of Gaugin, or the huge swaths of Mark Rothko, other artists will be new to them. They may discover a favorite in the everyday essentials featured in David Milne’s art or the experiments with form from Matisse, all encouraging readers to explore further.

Hot or Not also serves on a meta level about the subjectivity of art. Campbell notes in her presentation of art in the museum that there are “works of immense beauty as well as some real stinkers,” despite their being publicly treasured. A piece that speaks to one person may be seen as a waste of canvas to another, which is something that can encourage discussion and hopefully shifts in perspective to embrace wider ranges.

The “hot or not” question being directed only at male artists suggests commentary on how women in public spaces face that question even though it has nothing to do with their work, and Campbell’s jokes show well that there is personal taste even in asking. Ironically, or fittingly, the book is entirely in black ink throughout with no color, only hashing to hint at color or shadow. This makes clear that the “hot or not” question is hardly a black-or-white issue, just like any visual experience, especially art.