PCOer Morten Morland wins political cartoonist of the year

PCOer Morten Morland won the Political Cartoon Society's cartoonist of the year yesterday. Bloghorn is publishing one of Morten's Post-it note caricatures of Gordon Brown above.

Bloghorn's alter ego, and the current chair leg of the PCO, Andy Davey said:

It's great that Morten has won this. He's one of the best cartoonists working in the UK. The judges commended his immediately recognisable style and use of unusual perspective - I'd second that. And he does it all with only one real outing in the UK media per week - watch Mondays in The Times newspaper.

Steve Bell, of The Guardian, won best single image of the Year, for something like this and Peter Shrank of The Independent on Sunday was runner-up.

Morten has a word at his blog.

Christian Adams has a report here too.

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Cartoon exhibition: Tory Blues

An exhibition called Tory Blues: A Cartoon History of the Conservative Party opens today (October 21) at the Political Cartoon Gallery in London and runs until January 7, 2009.

It features original political cartoons charting the history of the Conservative Party from Benjamin Disraeli, through the likes of Balfour, Baldwin, Churchill, Thatcher and Major, to today’s Party Leader, David Cameron.

Included, for the very first time on display, are original cartoons covering both the Party’s election victories and defeats as well as important events in the history of Britain’s most successful political party.

The exhibition consists of 60 original cartoons by leading cartoonists both past and present including work by Sir John Tenniel, Sir Francis Carruthers Gould, Sidney Strube, Sir David Low, Leslie Illingworth, Trog, JAK, Michael Cummings, Nick Garland, Ronald Searle, Steve Bell, Chris Riddell, Paul Thomas Dave Brown, Peter Schrank, Martin Rowson and Peter Brookes among many others.

The exhibition is to be opened by the former Conservative MP Mathew Parris. A book by Alan Mumford entitled Tory Blues will accompany the show.

The Political Cartoon Gallery, at 32 Store Street, London, is open Monday to Friday 9.30am – 5.30pm and on Saturdays between 11.30am – 5.30pm.

UPDATED: 22nd October 2008.
Telegraph cartoonist Christian Adams has a write-up on the exhibition opening night here

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Cartoon exhibition: An Independent Line

An Independent Line – an exhibition of cartoons from The Independent newspaper, by Dave Brown, Peter Schrank and Tim Sanders, is at the Political Cartoon Gallery in London from June 18 until October 18.

The exhibition promises to be a treat for lovers of satire, as it features a wealth of work from the Indie's three political cartoonists. Drawing on the best of more than 12 years of material, it features cartoons from the John Major years to the present day.

The show will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated hardback book with a foreword by comedian Mark Steel.

The Political Cartoon Gallery is at 32 Store Street, London WC1E 7BS, and is open Monday to Friday 9.30am – 5.30pm and on Saturdays between 11.30am – 5.30pm.

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Cartoons on the radio

Above: Low takes on Hitler and Mussolini. Click to enlarge

Cartoons were back in the spotlight this morning with an item on BBC Radio Four's Today show about the David Low exhibition currently running at London's Political Cartoon Gallery.

Tim Benson of the gallery appeared on the show to discuss the work with politicians Douglas Hurd and Ken Clarke. You can see a selection of the cartoons in an online gallery at the Today website.

The Best of Low is at the Political Cartoon Gallery until June 7. Low (1891–1963) is considered by many to be the greatest political cartoonist of the 20th Century. This exhibition of his work includes more than 60 original cartoons from before the First World War to the early 1960s. None of the cartoons on show have been exhibited before.

The Political Cartoon Gallery is at 32 Store Street, London WC1E 7BS, and is open Monday to Friday 9.30am – 5.30pm and on Saturdays between 11.30am – 5.30pm.

Click here for top British cartoonists that are still with us!

Cartoon exhibition: The Best of Low

Above: Low takes on Hitler and Mussolini

An exhibition showcasing the best of Sir David Low is at the Political Cartoon Gallery in London from April 23 until June 7.

Low (1891–1963) is considered by many to be the greatest political cartoonist of the 20th Century. This exhibition of his work includes more than 60 original cartoons from before the First World War to the early 1960s. None of the cartoons on show have been exhibited before and include a number that were censored before and during the Second World War.

Many of the originals on show include Low’s most famous creations Colonel Blimp and the TUC Carthorse. The exhibition will also coincide with the launch of a book entitled Low and the Dictators which features the almost private war Low fought against Hitler and Mussolini from the 1920s until the end of the Second World War.

The Political Cartoon Gallery is at 32 Store Street, London WC1E 7BS, and is open Monday to Friday 9.30am – 5.30pm and on Saturdays between 11.30am – 5.30pm.

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Political cartoon exhibition: Shooting the Witness

Shooting the Witness, an exhibition by the Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his assassination in London, is at the Political Cartoon Gallery in London from March 6 until April 12.

Naji Al-Ali was one of the most prominent cartoonists in the Arab world. He had no political affiliations and the absence of slogans and dogma in his work brought both success and criticism. His bold and illustrative cartoons, widely published over the past 20 to 30 years, reveal the tragic state of the Middle East. His work sadly still rings true today.

His cartoons portrayed the bitter struggle and plight of the Palestinian people against Israeli oppression. He also campaigned against the absence of democracy, widespread corruption, and gross inequality in the Arab world. He was said to have antagonized virtually everyone in the Middle East.

He produced around 40,000 drawings, on average two cartoons a day, working for various publications in the Arab world. Naji Al-Ali draws a critique of all sides in the conflict, and the world’s complicity in the prolonged occupation of the Palestinians.

For the first time in London, 60 of Naji Al-Ali’s original artworks will be exhibited. The Political Cartoon Gallery is organising the exhibition in cooperation with the SOAS Palestine Society, the Nakba60 group, Cartoon County and the family of Naji Al-Ali.

The Political Cartoon Gallery, 32 Store Street, London WC1E 7BS, is open Monday to Friday 9.30am – 5.30pm and on Saturdays between 11.30am – 5.30pm.

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James Gillray: father of the political cartoon

An exhibition entitled Gillray’s Legacy: A Contemporary Perspective is at the Political Cartoon Gallery in London from January 16 until February 23.

The exhibition combines a selection of some of the Georgian caricaturist's best-known works, side by side with reworkings of these “after Gillray” by modern political cartoonists, including Steve Bell, Peter Brookes, Martin Rowson, Vicky, Dave Brown and Nicholas Garland.

These later cartoons offer both a contemporary twist and a full-blooded testimony to James Gillray’s achievements as “the father of the political cartoon”, while also showing how his powerful images of our follies and misdemeanours have continued to influence subsequent generations of artists.

The Political Cartoon Gallery is at 32 Store Street, London WC1E 7BS, and is open Monday to Friday 9.30am –5.30pm and on Saturdays between 11.30am–5.30pm.

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PCO Procartoonists - What we do

The profession and craft of cartooning (from gag drawings and pocket-sized newspaper jokes to comics strips and magazines, from editorial drawings and commercial advertising to digital monitors and billboards) has suffered some economic blows over the past decade. These have often been connected to the decline in the fortunes of the print industry.
But, despite this, the PCO is sure that - though undervalued by some in the UK - intelligent drawing remains an art-form which people continue to love to see and read. The map below, bears this knowledge out, as it shows you the locations of some of our many digital visitors this week.

We want to put our art in front of those people in a more direct way than we have previously done and we are, as an organisation, set up to promote and advertise the best of the active UK cartoon art world.
We seek to reach the three major constituencies which support our art form - editors of media outlets, both traditional and digital, art buyers in commercial companies and the reading public. We are doing this through three channels - the internet, our own printed magazine, The Foghorn, and at large public events like the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival and The Big Draw. We also help to make and run bespoke, or single-issue, cartoon exhibitions like this one, which are often on tour and shown in major cities in the UK and Europe.
As you'd expect, we have excellent connections in the world of art and business and work closely with the national Cartoon Museum, the Cartoon Hub at the University of Kent, the Political Cartoon Gallery and other interested galleries and arts bodies, including the cartoonists’ social clubs, the British Cartoonists’ Association and the Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain. We,in our own way, cover the UK. We also have excellent links abroad through our collaboration with European cartooning organisations inside Feco. If you are curious about our work and what it can do for you, you can contact us from our main portfolio site which lives here.

Andy Davey – Chairman of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation

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