In February 2018, London’s Cartoon Museum celebrated twelve years at 35 Little Russell Street, during which time it has put on 50 exhibitions of cartoons, comics, caricature, graphic novels and animation. 50 Glorious Shows! is the museum’s 51st exhibition at Little Russell Street and features items from, or relating to, all the previous exhibitions. It also showcases many of the wonderful artworks which the museum has acquired since 2006.
The opening of the new exhibition comes ahead of some major great news about the Museum, and from what we’ve been told so far an announcement coming soon is a big one. More as soon as we get it.
50 Glorious Shows! celebrates the world of British cartoons and comics in its many forms and features works by past masters of the British tradition of cartooning such as Hogarth, Gillray, Tenniel, Heath Robinson, Pont, H .M. Bateman, E. H. Shepard and Ronald Searle.
Top comic artists and graphic novelists such as Dudley D. Watkins, John McCrea and Garth Ennis, Hunt Emerson, David Lloyd, Posy Simmonds and Bryan Talbot have featured in several exhibitions, and are now part of the collection. For those who love a laugh, there are treats by Sally Artz, Larry, Frank Dickens, Mike Williams, Michael Heath, Kipper Williams, Peattie and Taylor, and many great joke cartoonists both past and present.
Britain has a great tradition of political satire, and the show will include selections from the Musuem’s Spitting Image, €urobollocks! Bell Èpoque, Maggie! Maggie! Maggie!, Punch, Private Eye and Steadman@77 exhibitions, as well as some recent donations by the rising generation of political cartoonists.
At the heart of political and social satire is great caricature, and the exhibition includes brilliant exponents of the art such as Max Beerbohm, Mark Boxer, Robert Sherriffs and Trog.
Other exhibitions have looked at how cartoons and comics have reflected social, cultural and political changes, including two world wars, the changing face of marriage, the reign of Queen Elizabeth II and Britian’s relationship with the demon drink. One of the most vibrant areas of cartooning and comics is the world of graphic novels, which is represented by a selection of work produced by British graphic novelists over the last twenty-five years.
When the Cartoon Museum moved to Little Russell Street in 2006 the collection numbered about 1,500 original works. It has now grown to over 4,200 works. The museum has only a tiny fund for acquisitions, so the majority of these works have been acquired through generous donations and bequests by artists and their families, collectors, and Friends of the Museum.
It is only with the support of organisations such as the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Art Fund, the ACE/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends and Trustees of the Cartoon Museum that the museum has been able to purchase artworks and significantly extend its holdings of rare items such as the artwork for a Beano cover by Dudley D. Watkins, a Gillray printing plate and the original 1961advertising poster for the new Private Eye.
“We hope that 50 Glorious Shows!, a tempting bouquet picked from the museum’s growing collection, will lure visitors deeper into the delights of the world of cartoon and comic creators,” says museum curator Anita O’Brien, “and prepare the ground for future discoveries in this rich field.”
• 50 Glorious Shows! runs from 28th March until 2nd September 2018 at the Cartoon Museum, 35 Little Russell Street, London, WC1A 2HH, Tel: 0207 580 8155 Web: www.cartoonmuseum.org | Facebook | Twitter
