Nov 2 - Cartoon America opens at Library of Congress

I was privileged to go to the preview opening today, and hear remarks by collector and cartoonist Art Wood, Librarian of Congress James Billington, curator/author Harry Katz and noted cartoonists Jules Feiffer, Ann Telnaes and Kal, as well as meeting the Post's Richard Thompson ... and all of this occured in the gilded 'members' room of the Library of Congress. A very attractive room that was. Anyway, I'll try to post more on this in the next day, or so, but here's the press release for this absolutely fantastic exhibit. The Nast original alone is worth making the trip downtown to see. Martha and Sara have done another fine job. And don't forget that they've got a Herblock exhibit on the floor above as well.


Library of Congress Exhibition "Cartoon America" Opens Nov. 2
Exhibition Features America's Best Cartoons from the Art Wood Collection

"Cartoon America: Highlights from the Art Wood Collection of Cartoon and Caricature" will open at the Library of Congress on Thursday, Nov. 2, in the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C. On view through Jan. 27, 2007, the exhibition is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday-Saturday.

The exhibition will feature 100 masterworks of such celebrated artists as political cartoonists Thomas Nast, Rube Goldberg, Bill Mauldin and Patrick Oliphant; comic strip creators Winsor McCay, George Herriman, Chic Young, Milt Caniff, Charles Schulz and Lynn Johnston; humorous gag cartoonists Peter Arno and William Steig; caricaturists Al Hirschfeld and David Levine; animation drawings and cels from Walt Disney Productions and Hanna-Barbera; and illustrations by Edwin A. Abbey, John Held and Michael Hague.

Drawings selected for the exhibition reflect the primary collecting interests of J. Arthur Wood Jr., a connoisseur of popular graphic art. Wood's collection of more than 36,000 original cartoon drawings * the Art Wood Collection of Cartoon and Caricature * is now housed in the Library's Prints and Photographs Division. The collection came to the Library in 2003 through a gift-purchase agreement made possible in part by a generous contribution from H. Fred Krimendahl II, a member of the Library's Madison Council, and the generosity of Wood himself.

The collection, spanning three centuries, is distinctive and unparalleled because of the depth of holdings in political cartoons and comic strips and the specific landmark pieces in all major genres. It stands out as a jewel among the Library's special collections, illuminating the history of American cartoon art forms and greatly enhancing the Library's extensive holdings of cartoon art.

According to exhibition co-curators Sara W. Duke and Martha H. Kennedy, the exhibition presents stellar examples from Wood's collection that reflect the vitality of an innovative, indigenous art form. The exhibition features the major genres of cartoon art: political cartoons, illustration, comic strips, gag and single-panel cartoons, illustration, and animation drawings and cels. An overview of highlights includes:

* Political cartoons by leading practitioners of the "ungentlemanly art," who comment pointedly on corruption, war and public figures from the 19th century's Gilded Age to recent times. Their visual editorials reflect diverse viewpoints conveyed in a wide variety of artistic approaches, including the classic cross-hatching techniques of Harper's Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast and Washington Star cartoonist Clifford Berryman, the broad crayon strokes of Rube Goldberg and Bill Mauldin, and the painterly styles of contemporary cartoonists Paul Conrad and Patrick Oliphant.

* Rare early comics in large, multi-panel formats include portrayals of the Yellow Kid and Buster Brown, two early famous comic strip characters created by Richard Outcault. Family strips such as "Bringing Up Father" by George McManus, "Gasoline Alley" by Frank King and "For Better or for Worse" by Lynn Johnston chronicle the humorous ups and downs of family life. Selections include adventure strips "Secret Agent X-9" by Alex Raymond and "Terry and the Pirates" by Milt Caniff; artfully innovative strips "Krazy Kat" by George Herriman and "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend" by Winsor McCay; and timeless classics "Popeye" by Elzie Segar and "Peanuts" by Charles Schulz. All transport viewers to other, self-contained, captivating worlds.

* Gag cartoons by Peter Arno, Barbara Shermund, George Price and others lampoon behavioral quirks and foibles that madden and amuse readers of The New Yorker and other popular magazines.

* Caricatures of Stokely Carmichael, by David Levine, and of performers Jimmy Durante and Paul Whiteman, in a 1935 staging of "Jumbo" by Al Hirschfeld, offer incisive insights and display witty and magical use of the pen.

* Treasures of animation art include a Walt Disney Productions cel of Mickey Mouse from "Fantasia"; a delightful drawing of Dumbo the elephant bathing himself; a storyboard drawing for "Bambi" by Tyrus Wong; a presentation drawing of all of the Seven Dwarfs; and a beautiful animation cel of Snow White for Disney's groundbreaking first full-length animated feature "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937).

* America's Golden Age of Illustration (1880s to 1920s) is represented by drawings created by Edwin Austin Abbey, James Montgomery Flagg, Dean Cornwell and their pioneering women counterparts, Nell Brinkley, Rose O'Neill and Katherine Pyle.

Wood, an award-winning cartoonist himself, began collecting original drawings at the age of 12. During a period of 60 years, he contacted and befriended numerous older masters of cartoon art forms, as well as leading contemporary creators in the field, and obtained selections of their work, primarily by gift and some by purchase. During his professional life, Wood worked diligently to establish a museum or gallery to preserve and showcase his collection. He achieved his goal in 1995 with the opening of the National Gallery of Caricature and Cartoon Art in downtown Washington, D.C., but the gallery closed in 1997, due to a lack of sustained funding. Undeterred, Wood turned to the Library of Congress, where he had worked early in his career, to preserve and present his collection.

A companion book titled "Cartoon America: Comic Art in the Library of Congress" will be published by Harry N. Abrams, in association with the Library of Congress. The book is edited by Harry Katz, former head curator of the Library's Prints and Photographs Division. Images of many cartoon drawings in the exhibition will be included among the 275 full-color illustrations in the book, which also surveys the Library's other holdings of related art.

The exhibition and an accompanying brochure are funded through the generous support of the Caroline and Erwin Swann Memorial Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon. The Swann Foundation showcases the collections of the Library of Congress in rotating exhibitions and promotes the continuing Swann Foundation program in the study of cartoon, caricature and illustration, while also offering a provocative and informative selection of works by masters from the past and present.

Ann Telnaes at United Nations

This one's late, but here's a press release on Cartooning for Peace The Responsibility of Political Cartoonists? Washington's Ann Telnaes, a very excellent cartoonist, and good speaker appeared.

The reason I'm still posting it is that webcasts of at least three sessions are available. Click here and go down to 16 October 06. There's a morning and afternoon session and a press conference with Plantu, the French cartoonist. Speaking of DC, he spoke at the Library of Congress a couple of years ago. You can see Ann Telnaes making remarks at the afternoon session at 1:14:50 for example.



Venue
United Natons Headquarters in New York
16 October 2006
10:00 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.
Conference Room 2


The fifth seminar in the Unlearning Intolerance seminar series of the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI), entitled "Cartooning for Peace: The Responsibility of Political Cartoonists?", will explore the rights, roles and responsibilities of political cartoonists in promoting peace issues.

The anger and divisiveness engendered by the publication of the caricature of Prophet Mohammed and the recent controversial exhibit on the Holocaust suggest both a sense of the power and of the necessity of responsibility in the art of cartooning. The choice of this particular topic at the present time will, we hope, offer another opportunity for the United Nations to be a forum where difficult, but necessary, questions are raised and addressed, not only to suggest answers but to spur non-confrontational thought, debate, and enquiry.

The Department of Public Information is grateful for the generous contribution of
Emory University's Claus M. Halle Institute for Global Learning
in support of this Unlearning Intolerance Seminar.

The seminar will be webcast live at www.un.org/webcast


Welcoming Remarks
Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor

Opening Statement
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan

Keynote Address
French cartoonist Jean Plantu, at Le Monde since 1972



Invited Participants
Jean Plantu, France
Hussein Moustafa, Egypt
Michel Kichka, Israel
Baha Boukhari, Palestine
Hassan Karimzadeh, Iran
Norio Yamanoi, Japan
Liza Donnelly, US
Ranan Lurie, US
Carsten Graabæk, Denmark
Cintia Bolio, Mexico
Godfrey Amon Mwampembwa (Gado), Kenya
Ann Telnaes, US
Mike Luckovich, US
Jeff Danziger, US



Programme


Registration
9:00 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.
United Nations lobby, First Avenue at 46th Street

Welcoming Remarks by Under-Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor
10:05 a.m. - 10:10 a.m.

Opening Statement by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan
10:10 a.m. - 10:20 a.m.

Keynote Speech by Jean Plantu
10:20 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Morning Panel
10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Should the Cartoonist Educate?
(The Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information to open and moderate the panel discussion)

Question and Answer Session
11:30 a.m. - 12:25 p.m.

Open discussion between and among the panelists, discussants and the audience

Break
12:25 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Afternoon Panel
3:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.

Should Responsibilities Abridge Rights?
(The Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information to open and moderate the panel discussion)

Question and Answer Session
4:15 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Open discussion between and among the panelists, discussants and the audience

Closing remarks
5:30 p.m - 5:45 p.m.

Under-Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor and Dr. Holli A. Semetko, Director of Emory University's
The Claus M. Halle Institute for Global Learning


The seminar will be webcast live at: www.un.org/webcast



Cartoooning for Peace Exhibit:
In conjunction with the Seminar, an exhibit, organized by the Outreach Division and the United Nations Regional Information Centre (Brussels) of the Department of Public Information, in association with Salon international du dessin de presse et d'humour de Saint-Just-le-Martel, showcases the work of cartoonists from Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Palestine, Switzerland and the United States. It may be viewed in the Visitors Lobby.

To Attend:
The seminar is open to members of the public, non-governmental organizations and media representatives who register in advance. Those in possession of a valid UN grounds pass, such as delegations of Member States, UN-affiliated non-governmental organizations and media representatives need not register. Registration is free for the public.

Registration & ID pickup:
UN Visitors Lobby. Enter at First Avenue and 46th Street.

To register, please write, providing your name and affiliation, to:
Jose Rene Tanoy, Academic Initiative Section, Civil Society Service, Outreach Division, DPI
E-Mail: tanoy@un.org; tel.: 1-917-367-9326; fax: 1-917-367-6075


For media accreditation, please visit: www.un.org/media/accreditation/index.htm:
Mr. Gary Fowlie, Chief, Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit, United Nations Headquarters, Room S-250, New York, NY 10017. Tel: 1-212-963-6937; fax: 1-212-963-4642


More information about the Unlearning Intolerance seminar series can be found on the UN Chronicle Online at www.un.org/chronicle. The UN Chronicle print edition is published by the Department of Public Information in English and French. It is not an official record; the views expressed in individual articles do not necessarily imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.

To subscribe to the magazine, contact UN Publications at publications@un.org or call (800) 253-9646, or go to www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/order.htm for details on a special Internet offer of US$10 per year.