Gillray's Ghost: James Gillray and his influence on political cartoons
Interesting exhibition at the Cartoon Museum looking at the work of the 18th century
satirist, James Gillray and the influence he has had on subsequent generations.
It was useful to
see this so soon after the show at the Queen’s Gallery on Thomas Rowlandson as
they covered roughly the same period. I must admit I preferred Rowlandson as I
found Gillray crueller but I think that is the difference between a cartoonist
and a satirist.
This exhibition
was however quite different in that it mainly looked at Gillray’s influence so
there were lots of examples of where modern satirists such as Steve Bell quoted
and reused earlier images by Gillray. The main example used was the Plum
Pudding in Danger which Gillary had used to show Pitt and Napoleon carving up
Europe in the guise of a big pudding. Later examples showed Johnson and
Kosygin, Blair and Kohl, Blair and Chirac, Cameron and Sarkozy and many more!
It just shows that nothing changes!
I hadn’t realised
that Gilray invented the idea of the Old Lady of Theadneedle Street. An MP had
called the bank an old lady and Gillray added the street depicting her in a
dress made of bank notes and image which is still being used by satirists.
It was nice that
most of the modern pictures were originals not prints or images from
newspapers. The commentaries were useful but it made me realise you often need
to know a lot to get the full meaning of a satirical image as they don’t come
with commentaries in the papers!
Closes 17 January.
Closes 17 January.
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