Richard McGuire. Then and There. Here and Now at the Cartoonmuseum Basel

On my way to the Kunstmuseum Basel | Gegenwart I came across a poster for an exhibition by Richard McGuire at the Cartoonmuseum Basel. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but it didn’t quite register, until it suddenly dawned on me. Richard McGuire is the author of the celebrated graphic novel Here. Perhaps rather stupidly it hadn’t occurred to me that, of course, Richard McGuire has done a lot more besides Here and that, if I enjoyed Here, I would probably like his other work as well. And so I rushed to the Cartoonmuseum, happy to squeeze it into my busy schedule.

Richard McGuire has had a long and distinguished career as an illustrator and designer. He was born in 1957 in New Jersey and studied art at Rutgers University. He actually started out as a street artist in Downtown New York. I enjoyed seeing some of the posters and flyers that he created at the time and which have a real 1980s vibe. McGuire is also a founding member and bassist of the post-punk band Liquid Liquid, which is best known for their song Cavern, which has a highly recognizable and much-sampled bass line. Who would have thought.

"Then and There. Here and Now" provides a fascinating survey of McGuire’s 40-year career. It was interesting to see how his work has developed over the years. Unlike other artists and illustrators, such as Joost Swarte and Chris Ware, Richard McGuire doesn’t really have a signature style (or perhaps I didn’t study his work close enough). This is probably why I recognized some of the works in the exhibition, but why his name didn’t ring a bell when I first discovered Here.

Richard McGuire has created many seminal covers and illustrations for The New Yorker and The New York Times. In 1993, he designed a cover for The New Yorker, which can be viewed both right side up and upside down. He has also designed children’s books and toys.

I love, Love, LOVE this illustration by Richard McGuire, which perfectly captures my childhood fascination with books and what books mean, not only to a child (I'm not going to spell it out)

The exhibition is a masterclass in creativity and imagination. I was struck by McGuire’s conceptual ingenuity. Many of his illustrations are highly intelligent and funny in a subtle way. The prime example is, of course, Here, which is set in an anonymous living room and lets the reader travel through time, from the first appearance of life on Earth through the 19th and 20th century and into the future. It is currently being made into a film by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, to be released at the end of 2024.

"Then and There. Here and Now" is a wonderful exhibition that deserves to travel to Paris, London, New York, Tokyo and Seoul and to be seen by a wide audience. If you cannot make it to the exhibition, it is accompanied by a richly illustrated, bilingual catalogue, which you can buy at your favorite bookstore.

Richard McGuire. Then and There. Here and Now is at the Cartoonmuseum Basel through 3 November 2024.

Spreads and sketches for Here
Here was first published as a six-page black-and-white comic in 1989 (click to enlarge)