"And Although the Dark Mysteries..."
Charles Addams
American, 1912–1988
(1974)
A gouache-and-ink drawing with pasted typed text that puts a typewriter front and center in a thatched hut, as Charles Addams wryly stages the act of a writer composing — and exoticizing — a distant scene.
What hits you first is the bulky, meticulously rendered typewriter on the table (complete with a tiny figure perched on the keys), its paper aligning the viewer’s eye through the dark thatched window onto a loose, brushy vignette of dancers and huts beyond.
By combining drawing, collage, and type, Addams makes visible the mechanics of storytelling and satire, joining mid‑century cartooning to a meta‑textual critique of exoticism and authorship.
Medium
Gouache, ink, typewriting, and pasted paper on paper on board
Dimensions
22 1/2 x 16 5/8" (56.9 x 42.2 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the artist
Accession
1144.1969
Palette
Exhibitions
