Odds & Ends

Called ""the Brueghel of the last half of the 20th century"" by no less a skeptic than establishment art critic Robert Hughes, cartoonist R. Crumb has produced some of the smuttiest yet piercingly affecting and quintessentially American art since the 1960s. Fans of Mr. Natural, the Monkey Wrench Gang, Fritz the Cat, Devil Girl and Crumb's agonized self-portraits won't want to miss Odds & Ends, a new, chronologically organized collection of unpublished doodles, Valentine cards drawn during his employment at American Greetings, covers for underground newspapers, advertisements for porn theaters and bike shops, and record album covers. Crumb selected the myriad b&w and color drawings here, all displaying his dark and hilarious vulgarity. ( May 3)