Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
[Clay Geerdes original caricature and cartoon drawings pertaining to David Nadel and Ashkenaz].
Collection Number:
Collection Overview

Title:

[Clay Geerdes original caricature and cartoon drawings pertaining to David Nadel and Ashkenaz]

Creator/Contributor:

Geerdes, Clay, 1934-1997, creator, artist.

Creator/Contributor:

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center, publisher.

Abstract:

Original caricature and cartoon images by Clay Geerdes, drawn by the artist when he was an employee at Ashkenaz, the international folk dancing venue founded by his close friend David Nadel. Numerous drawings are caricatures of well-known characters from comic strips, cartoons, comix publications and other sources (e.g. Snoopy, Charlie Brown and other Peanuts characters; Disney characters Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse; and Pink Panther, Betty Boop, Porky Pig, Popeye and Dick Tracy, among others) often depicted in reference to folk dancing and/or Ashkenaz. Many drawings humorously depict Nadel and other employees, customers and associates of Ashkenaz. As most drawings are on the backs of flyers issued by Ashkenaz to promote their events, the collection also serves to document the early years of the venue and the emerging "world music" scene in Berkeley and the greater Bay Area.

Date:

1978 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca
Nadel, David -- Caricatures and cartoons
Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center -- Pictorial works
Caricatures and cartoons
Comic strip characters -- Caricatures and cartoons
World music -- California -- Berkeley
Folk dancing -- California -- Berkeley

Note:

Title devised by cataloger.
Collector unknown.
Most drawings signed and dated by the artist.
Clay Geerdes original caricature and cartoon drawings pertaining to David Nadel and Ahskenaz, BANC PIC 2021.014, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Clay Geerdes (1934-1997); journalist, photographer, underground comix publisher and promoter; born in Sioux City, Iowa; raised in Lincoln, Nebraska; after serving 4 years in the U.S. Navy, settled in San Francisco in 1954; studied at San Francisco State University and University of California, Berkeley, where he nearly completed a Ph.D. in English literature before leaving academia to work as journalist; wrote for the Los Angeles Free Press, The Staff, Berkeley Barb, Village Voice and S.F. Phoenix, among other periodicals; became involved in the underground comix scene in the early 1970s; published Comix World newsletter from 1973 to 1984; was instrumental in organization of Berkeleycon (1973, 1974 and1976), the first convention to showcase underground comix; published Comix Wave (1983-1995); Geerdes' photographs of pioneering figures in the underground comix scene were featured in Underground Comix Family Album (1998); died in San Francisco.
David Nadel (1946-1996): human rights activist and folk dancer; founded Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center in 1973; murdered by venue patron in 1996.

Type:

graphic
Drawings.
Fliers (Ephemera)

Physical Description:

drawing
approximately 170 drawings in 1 box : chiefly ink on paper ; sheets 28 x 22 cm or smaller

Language:

English

Origin:

California