NEW YORK CITY — The Museum of Modern Art will present “Comic Abstraction: Image-Breaking, Image-Making,” on view March 4–June 11 in the Special Exhibitions Gallery, third floor.

In recent years a number of artists have transmuted the lexicon of comic strips and films, cartoons, and animation into a new representational mode of “comic abstraction” to address perplexing issues of war and global conflicts, the aftermath of September 11, and ethnic and cultural stereotyping.

From Julie Mehretu’s intricately layered paintings — in which she uses cartoon explosions to portray the changing histories of civilizations as a result of warfare — and Arturo Herrera’s psychological collages, made by slicing and reconfiguring the pages of Walt Disney coloring books, to Rivane Neuenschwander’s unpopulated comic strips in the series Zé Carioca, the world of comic abstraction reflects the intensely personal relationship that many contemporary artists maintain with world politics.

Organized by Roxana Marcoci, curator, Department of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog illustrating all works in the exhibition with additional reference illustrations of the artists’ work and other comparative material.

The Museum of Modern Art is at 11 West 53rd Street. For information, www.moma.org or 212-708-9400.