A Giles cartoon published in the Sunday Express in 1967.
From the Culture Cartooned exhibition, courtesy of the British Cartoon Archive

The question “What is culture?” was raised recently in a high-profile promo campaign for the BBC’s re-launched Culture Show. An exhibition of cartoons from the 20th Century that takes a light-hearted look at culture may provide the answer. Or it might just be a good laugh.

Culture Cartooned is at the Royal Museum and Art Gallery in Canterbury until Saturday 26 July and includes original artwork and prints across a range of cultural themes, from the visual arts, ballet and cinema to sport and the Olympics. This is the broad variety of activity that comes under the government’s definition of “culture”.

Exhibition highlights include cartoons by Giles about Arts Council grants and sporting prowess; perceptive observations of museum and gallery visitors by WK Haselden and Keith Waite; Reg Smythe’s Andy Capp commenting on films; and the pocket cartoons of Mel Calman and David Austin. Some of the cartoons question what we mean by heritage, while others show our ambivalent attitudes to sport and sportsmen, or art and artists.

The show is at the Royal Museum and Art Gallery, Beaney Institute (first floor), 18 High Street, Canterbury. It is open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 4.45pm. Admission is free. Culture Cartooned is organised by Canterbury City Council in partnership with the British Cartoon Archive at the University of Kent.

On the subject of the Culture Show, the extended version, screened on Friday night, included a great animated film by Johnny Kelly which will be of interest to cartoonists and anyone involved in any creative endeavour, as it’s called Procrastination.

Canterbury Royal Museum & Art Gallery

The Culture Show

The PCO: British cartoon talent

After a weekend exploring the subject of “Art” at the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival, it was good to see The Guardian dedicating several pages of its G2 Arts section to cartoons yesterday.

Hillary Clinton by Barry Blitt, from The Guardian

The paper carried an article looking at the work of cartoonists attempting to get to grips with depicting US presidential hopefuls Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. Cartoonists were canvassed on how they approached their subject and the paper carried lots of images.

You can read the article and see the cartoons here:
National lampoon

UPDATED: Click image to enlarge

And here is some British cartoon talent

As well as the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival, April also brings with it a long-awaited exhibition celebrating the life and work of the late Dave Follows. It takes place at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, from April 19 – June 29.

Dave, who died in 2003, left a significant legacy of artwork that spans three decades. His work appeared in newspapers, comics, and magazines all over the world, including the Sunday Times supplement Funday Times (weekly for 15 years), more than 20 local newspapers, such as the North Staffordshire Evening Sentinel (daily for 20 years), and Buster comic.

Dave lived in Stafford all his life. He had a special soft spot for the Potteries and its people. His daily cartoon strip May un Mar Lady, written in Potteries dialect, first appeared on July 8, 1985, in the Sentinel and was a local institution for nearly 20 years.

The exhibition, May un Mar Lady: Three Decades of Cartooning by Dave Follows, includes a huge selection of Dave’s original cartoons, a reconstruction of his work area, life-size cartoon figures, a May un Mar Lady pilot animation, and a preview screening of a documentary exploring the Potteries dialect in the context of Dave’s cartoons by the Stoke-On-Trent based film production company Inspired Film And Video.

British cartoon talent

As is only appropriate, the Shropshire Star newspaper today begins the countdown to the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival.

The event takes place on the weekend of April 18-20, but the main festival exhibition, entitled “But is it Art?”, opens this Sunday (March 30) and runs until April 26.

Click on “But is it art”, under Labels below, to see examples of many PCO members contributions to the show. Below is one from PCOer William Rudling.

British cartoon talent

Art critic cartoon by Chris Madden

Another sneak preview of submitted work for the “But is it Art?” show at the forthcoming Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival. This cartoon is by Chris Madden. Bloghorn says click M for Madden.

British cartoon talent

A new documentary entitled Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird, has to be high on the list of must-see films for anyone interested in cartoons.

Steven-Charles Jaffe’s portrait of the famed New Yorker and Playboy cartoonist is currently on the festival circuit in the US. It features interviews with fans including Neil Gaiman, Stan Lee, Randy Newman, Guillermo del Toro and Hugh Hefner and includes an exclusive behind the scenes look at how cartoons for The New Yorker are pitched, bought, or rejected.

There’s no word yet on whether the film is coming to the UK, and there doesn’t even seem to be a trailer online. There is, however, a clip of Wilson designing a “dark and twisted” image used to decorate a skateboard …

British cartoon talent

The family of the late Dave Follows has organised an exhibition to celebrate the cartoonist’s work and legacy at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, from April 19 – June 29.

Dave, who died in 2003, left a significant legacy of artwork that spans three decades. His work appeared in newspapers, comics, and magazines all over the world, including the Sunday Times supplement Funday Times (weekly for 15 years), more than 20 local newspapers, such as the North Staffordshire Evening Sentinel (daily for 20 years), and Buster comic.

Dave lived in Stafford all his life. He had a special soft spot for the Potteries and its people. His daily cartoon strip May un Mar Lady, written in Potteries dialect, first appeared on July 8, 1985, in the Sentinel and was a local institution for nearly 20 years.

The exhibition, May un Mar Lady: Three Decades of Cartooning by Dave Follows, includes a huge selection of Dave’s original cartoons, a reconstruction of his work area, life-size cartoon figures, a May un Mar Lady pilot animation, and a preview screening of a documentary exploring the Potteries dialect in the context of Dave’s cartoons by the Stoke-On-Trent based film production company Inspired Film And Video.

British cartoon talent

Here’s a link to a book on cartoon drawing by B. “Tack” Knight from 1923. It’s a fun read. The complete book has been posted on Flickr by Dave Blog (possibly not his real name) and you can read it as a slideshow here: Tack’s Cartoon Tips. Not for those offended by images from a pre-politically correct era …

British cartoon talent

Cartoon by PCO member Royston Robertson (after Damien Hirst) submitted for the “But is it Art?” exhibition

The Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival is fast approaching. The 2008 event takes place on the weekend of April 18-20.

The theme this year is “Art” and one of the highlights will be an exhibition of new work by festival cartoonists, including many PCO members, entitled “But is it Art?” which will run from March 30 until April 26.

British cartoon talent

An exhibition entitled Robert Dighton: Georgian Caricaturist, Actor and Thief is at The Cartoon Museum in London from January 23 to April 20.

Dighton (1751-1814) was a colourful character who for a time combined a career as an actor in the West End with that of artist and printseller, producing caricatures of the London celebrities of the day.

This exhibition of 80 of his original caricatures of celebrities and nonentities, the rich and the poor, provides an insight into the life of Georgian London. They range from Bill Richmond the famous black boxer, sportsman, innkeeper and promoter, to Martha Gunn who supplied bathing machines and prostitutes to the upper classes on their visits to fashionable Brighton. Dighton also drew the tailors, actors, academics and down-at-heel types who could be found on any street.

At the turn of the century he achieved notoriety for stealing and selling prints which he had quietly stolen from the British Museum.

The exhibition will also include some examples by his sons and grandsons who carried on the tradition of caricature.

The museum is at at 35 Little Russell Street, London WC1A 2HH and is open Tue-Sat, 10.30am-5.30pm, Sun 12pm-5.30. Admission £4/ £3. Free to Students and under 18s.

British cartoon talent