Batman+2

Date: 2005
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/2010/2010.20_1a.jpg&max=460 width="230" height="334" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=77253"]] || Title: **Batman 2**

Artist: **Mark Newport** Born: Amsterdam, New York, 1964

Medium: acrylic and buttons Dimensions: 76 x 26 x 6 in. (193.0 x 66.0 x 15.2 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Museum purchase through the Richard T. Evans Fund © 2005, Mark Newport

Accession: 2010.20 || Mark Newport knits costumes for superheroes such as Batman, Superman, and Spiderman. These protagonists first appeared in comic books and were further popularized in cinema and television, the media that brought theater to the masses. Some of Newport's other subjects include fictionalized heroes of the American West, such as Rawhide Kid and Two Gun Kid, and characters of his own invention, such as Sweaterman. Knitting is more readily associated with craft than high art, so Newport's lowbrow process, emphasized by his use of acrylic yarn, affirms his message about the influence and pervasiveness of the popular.
 * Exhibition Label: **

A superhero's sleek suit generally functions as a shield from injury, but the only protection that Newport's homey outfits offer is from the cold. They underscore the false security promised by fantastic beings. Far from skintight, the suits droop and sag. When displayed on a hanger they are lifeless, shroudlike vestments that seem to mock the implied physical power of the familiar emblems and color schemes. Though the artist creates them to his own proportions, their misshapenness indicates that they will fit no one well and everyone adequately. This is evident in Newport's prints, which are visual narratives about characters wearing his costumes. The artist sometimes knits in public while wearing one of his knitted suits. He performs in the everyday arena transformed by his dress; the most ordinary locales have the potential to be his stage.

The third work in Newport’s Batman series, Batman 2, focuses on the character’s specific powers. Not possessing extreme strength, Batman uses resources and his ingenuity as an inventor. This work by Newport has a knitted version of Batman’s “utility belt” and crossed armbands with protruding knitted spikes. The softness of the material causes the viewer to wonder about the utility of protective armaments (Mark Newport, Emily Zilber, Sue Taylor, et al, 34).
 * About the Artwork: **

When he was young, Newport’s grandmother taught him how to knit. Later while a high school exchange student in Brazil, he learned how to weave. He holds degrees from Kansas City Art Institute and the Art Institute of Chicago. In the early 2000’s Newport was on the faculty at Western Washington University in Bellingham. At this time he further experimented with knitting, and he began knitting full-body costumes.
 * About the Artist: **

His work comments on postwar American television and popular entertainment. Newport associates his pieces with lowbrow entertainment by using cheap acrylic yarn. The //New York Times// noted that in the last five years, since 2003, four million people in the United States have taken up knitting (Kate Bonansinga, 31-33.)

Bonansinga, Kate. //Staged Stories: Renwick Craft Invitational, 2009// (Washington, D.C.: Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in association with Scala Publishers, 2009).

Newport, Mar, Emily Zilber, Sue Taylor, et al. //Mark Newport: Super Heroes in Action// (Michigan, Cranbrook Art Museum, 2009).

Mark Newport on Marie Watt - Connections Video Stacey Lee Webber on Mark Newport - Connections Video
 * Resources: **

SAAM Collections Page Mark Newport Official Site ,
 * Links: **