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Rowson works go under the hammer

by Royston Robertson

Bloghorn attended a charity auction at the Martin Rowson exhibition Creations in Bad Faith on Tuesday (June 8).

The exhibition features artwork from New Humanist magazine, which is published by the Rationalist Association.

Many items were sold for quite impressive sums, with the artwork for Rowson’s meeting of Richard Dawkins and God, above, and for his “God Trumps” series – Top Trumps-style cards on world religions – being particularly fought over. Radio presenter and New Humanist writer Laurie Taylor was auctioneer.

The show runs at the Menier Gallery in Southwark, London, until Saturday (June 12) and many items are still for sale. Admission is free. More details here.

And, don’t miss … You have until June 18 to see the show Alex in Love at the Last Tuesday Society in Hackney. Your correspondent saw this last week and it is very much recommended.

If you’re not a regular Alex reader– perhaps you have no interest in City matters – fear not because the strips, as the title suggests, are all about love, sex and relationships. And they are very funny.

The exhibition is free, but if you pay £1 you can also get access to the Last Tuesday Society’s “museum of curiosity”, a chance to see shrunken heads, some creepy taxidermy and all manner of bizarre artworks. Not for the faint of heart.

June 10, 2010 1 Comment

Alex’s thoughts turn to love

by Royston Robertson

An exhibition entitled Alex in Love opens today at the Last Tuesday Society in East London, and runs until June 18.

Via a selection of comic strips from The Independent and The Daily Telegraph, from 1987 to the present day, Alex will divulge some of the wisdom and expertise he has acquired on the art of love. The infamous City boy character, created by Charles Peattie and Russell Taylor, has been married for 20 years, we are told, though that does include four affairs and a career’s worth of strip-club expenses claims.

The Last Tuesday Society, at 11 Mare Street, Hackney – a gallery which boasts a quirky shop selling a range of exotic objects from two-headed teddy bears to mummified penises – is open Wed-Sun, 12-7pm. The nearest Tube station is Bethnal Green.

June 3, 2010 4 Comments

2010 Election cartoon round-up

by Matt Buck

Alex Hughes reports.

You may have not noticed, but there’s been a general election in Britian recently. And a general election means it’s open season for the political cartoonists, so here Bloghorn presents a brief summary of the events of the last month or so in cartoon form, starting at the beginning of the election with Dave Brown of the Independent on the runners and riders and the Guardian’s Martin Rowson on the approaching media obsession.
During the campaign The Guardian’s Steve Bell talks about drawing at the manifesto launches, the Sky debate, and drawing Nick Clegg, Peter Mandelson and David Cameron (and the cartoon that came from this).

The TV debates may have changed the direction of the election, but they were seen differently by Tim Sanders in the Independent, Dave Brown, Peter Brookes of the Times, Steve Bell and Paul Thomas of the Daily Expesss,whilst Morten Morland of the Times produced a series of short animated responses to each of the debates (ITV, Sky, BBC).

The debates lead to widespread Cleggmania as seen by Stephen Collins in Prospect, Matt in the Daily Telegraph, Martin Rowson and Paul Thomas, and the inevitable media backlash as satirised by Peter Brookes and Dave Brown.

Gordon Brown made what was probably the biggest political gaffe of the campaign by calling a member of the public a “bigoted woman”; Peter Brookes, and Dave Brown, Mac of the Daily Mail, Paul Thomas provided their own takes on Bigotgate.

The election night itself inspired Tim Sanders and Matt, but as we now know it resulted in a hung parliament, as shown variously the Sun’s Andy Davey, Dave Brown, Matt, Peter Brookes, Paul Thomas and Mac (and even a hung parliament themed game), Gordon Brown’s departure as seen by Nick Garland and eventually the Con-Lib coalition Christian Adams, Tim Sanders, Morten Morland and Martin Rowson.

Looking forward to the challenges for the new Government were Harry Venning’s Clare in the Community and Kal in the Economist, and looking back, Bloghorn’s very own Matt Buck produced a series of weekly despatches for the Guardian from the 1710 campaign as seen by Tobias Grubbe (2, 3, 4, 5). The Times produced a 9 page comic summary of the election campaign available for download here (PDF, 7Mb).

(“Keep Calm and Cameron” cartoon by Nathan Ariss).

The Editor adds: We are bound to have missed many other great examples of cartooning so please do feel free to add things you have seen in the comments. Thanks.

May 12, 2010 3 Comments

Young Cartoonists of the Year to be announced

by Alex Hughes

Foghorn for Cartoon of the Week Voting has now taken place for the 2009 UK Young Cartoonist of the Year awards. The awards will be presented at the annual Cartoon Art Trust event in central London this evening. The awards are made in two categories, for artists under 18 and 30s years old, and were chosen from more than 200 submissions. The judges panel was headed by Guardian cartoonist and PCO member Martin Rowson. Fellow judge Christian Adams of The Daily Telegraph has written about the process here. Bloghorn will have full coverage tomorrow.