and this art? I dig it, but the information on the artist? Incredible.
Ronald Searle was a British artist widely recognized for his watercolors and satirical cartoons. Often depicting contemporary and historical culture, his works exhibit a unique and highly-stylized quality. Born on March 3, 1920 in Cambridge, United Kingdom, Searle spent his youth studying at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology.
Searle’s talent was spotted before the war, when he won a scholarship at Cambridge Art School in 1938, meaning he could give up working as a parcel-packer at the Co-op. His father was a porter on Cambridge Station. His mother came from a line of clockmakers, who painted the dials of the clocks.
by 19 he was drawing for the Daily Express.
And then the war came
One month after his brigade arrived in Singapore in January 1942, the island was surrendered to the Japanese. Searle spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in Changi Prison and on the Thai-Burma Railway, made famous in The Bridge on the River Kwai. (‘The film’s rubbish,’ says Searle, ‘Alec [Guinness], who was a friend, hated it. The idea that you’d be proud of building a bridge as a prisoner was ludicrous.’)
Using the one pen that survived the boat trip from England, Searle made 400 secret drawings (several are in the Cartoon Museum show) of his fellow prisoners dying of cholera, and the brutalities meted out by the prison guards. One St Trinian’s cartoon was drawn on the back of a notice listing recent deaths in the prison.
‘It all made me into an artist, though. I went into the war as an art student of 19, who did pictures of my mum and dad and the dog. Suddenly you’re drawing people who are going to die. With a subject matter so brutal, it was your duty to get something on paper that vaguely represented what was going on. I appointed myself an unofficial war artist. I developed far more as an artist in the four years I was in prison than in four years at art school.
by 19 he was drawing for the Daily Express.
And then the war came
One month after his brigade arrived in Singapore in January 1942, the island was surrendered to the Japanese. Searle spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in Changi Prison and on the Thai-Burma Railway, made famous in The Bridge on the River Kwai. (‘The film’s rubbish,’ says Searle, ‘Alec [Guinness], who was a friend, hated it. The idea that you’d be proud of building a bridge as a prisoner was ludicrous.’)
Using the one pen that survived the boat trip from England, Searle made 400 secret drawings (several are in the Cartoon Museum show) of his fellow prisoners dying of cholera, and the brutalities meted out by the prison guards. One St Trinian’s cartoon was drawn on the back of a notice listing recent deaths in the prison.
‘It all made me into an artist, though. I went into the war as an art student of 19, who did pictures of my mum and dad and the dog. Suddenly you’re drawing people who are going to die. With a subject matter so brutal, it was your duty to get something on paper that vaguely represented what was going on. I appointed myself an unofficial war artist. I developed far more as an artist in the four years I was in prison than in four years at art school.
After his liberation in late 1945, Searle began producing literature and drawings detailing his harrowing experience of captivity and torture. The artist's work has had a tremendous impact on popular culture, and featured frequently in the pages of the New Yorker and the News Chronicle.
His varied illustrated series and stand-alone political cartoons, have influenced many contemporary illustrators and cartoonists, including Matt Groening and Pat Oliphant.
Throughout his life, he received numerous awards, including the 1959 and 1965 National Cartoonists Society's Advertising and Illustration Award, and the appointment of Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2004
Skip the 1st 8 minutes to get to the GOOD stuff! Then skip from 12:54 to 14:57 and watch til 17:31
For more of Searle's airplane art, see https://thecarycollection.com/products/those-magnificent-men-in-their-flying-machines-1965-searle-ronald-richardson-bill-andrews-allen
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/jan/03/ronald-searle-gerald-scarfe
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/from-the-archives-the-great-ronald-searle/
Thank you Doug!
I found the movie has another title, Monte Carlo or Bust! https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/those-daring-young-men-in-their-jaunty-jalopies
ReplyDeleteQuite the story on the artist, what a tough way to grow up fast.