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Peter Kuper

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  1. The System, c. 2000 by Peter Kuper, Image 1.

    Peter Kuper

    The System, c. 2000, 2014 Gift of William Busta and Joan Tomkins

    four-color serigraph, 28/75; after graphics for The System, (collected as a single book) softbound, (DC/Vertigo), 1997

    34 x 25.5 in (86.36 x 64.77 cm)

Peter Kuper was born on September 22, 1958, in Cleveland, Ohio. Upon graduating from high school in 1976, Kuper studied art for a year at Ohio's Kent State University. Then he was offered employment as an illustrator in a New York City cartoon studio. After heading east, he learned that the job had fallen through, but he decided to remain in the city. He supported himself drawing caricatures as a street artist while taking evening classes at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute.

Kuper's interest in the world around him enabled him to draw influence from different sources, and he just happened to live in the same city as comic artist Harvey Pekar (1939–; see entry). When he was thirteen, Kuper met fellow Clevelander Pekar, who in turn introduced him to R. Crumb (1943–). Pekar and Crumb are among the top comic artists of their time, and their artistic sensibilities greatly impacted on Kuper as he developed his own creative voice. "As far as (other) influences, there are about a million," Kuper noted. They include artists (Norman Rockwell, Saul Steinberg, Lynd Ward, Jack Kirby, Ralph Steadman, and the makers of "the African masks on my wall"); writers (J. D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck); artist-writers (Dr. Seuss); photographers (Diane Arbus); filmmakers (Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Altman); and rock musicians and groups (The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, XTC, Naughty by Nature).
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