Roz Chast: Cartoon Memoirs; Roz Chast, From 9 to 10;  Lynn can’t understand why someone would knit pajamas by hand, 2015. Illustration for Around the Clock by Roz Chast (Atheneum Books for Young Readers). © Roz Chast. All rights reserved.

You know a Roz Chast cartoon when you see it. From a sampling of belated Mother's Day cards that say things like, "See? I didn't completely blow it off," to the Dumbest Pacts with the Devil Ever, Chast's distinctive drawings revel in the anxieties and absurdities of contemporary life and have made her one of the most celebrated cartoonists in the United States today.

Since the 1970s, Chast has produced over 1,200 cartoons and covers for The New Yorker and other magazines, several illustrated books for children and adults, and her award-winning 2014 visual memoir about the last years of her elderly parents' lives, Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

Roz Chast: Cartoon Memoirs, an exhibition organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, highlights Chast's signature style and wit with approximately 250 objects including most of the original work for Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, original cartoons for The New Yorker and others, book illustrations, storytelling rugs, and more.

"Roz Chast was born to kvetch and we are all the better for it," says Lori Starr, Executive Director of San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum (The CJM). "With a particular New York Jewish sensibility, Chast's humor of complaint offers us all a chance to laugh at the often stressful and absurd world around us. She is an important social satirist who, like so many other Jewish humorists, has helped to shape our culture, and with her moving and honest memoir, she shows us how deeply she can touch our hearts as well. The CJM is honored to present the west coast debut of this exhibition.”

The four-color drawings that make up the pages of Chast’s graphic memoir Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? are a special focus of the exhibition. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1954, Chast is the only child of two educators who inspired her art and world view — her strong-willed mother, Elizabeth, and her gentle, worrywart father, George. The artist's poignant tale, punctuated by moments of hilarity, traces their physical and cognitive decline, from "The Beginning of the End" to "The End," examining the complexities of her relationship with them through the years.

The book, a #1 New York Times bestseller, has garnered acclaim for its grimly funny and moving examination of end-of-life issues as she experienced them with her elderly parents. It was a 2014 National Book Award finalist and won the National Book Critics' Circle Award for Autobiography, the first time a graphic novel has won in this category. It also won the Kirkus Prize for Non-Fiction, the 2014 Books for a Better Life Award, and the 2015 Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society. The book and Chast's artwork were also recognized with a Heinz Award for Arts and Humanities in 2015.

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