The Inflammatory Art of Cartoons
The world is mourning the death of a dozen people at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. They were the victims of a terrorist attack, apparently aimed at several cartoonists.
Charlie Hebdo is known for its irreverent left-wing and anti-religious tone, often featuring cartoons that caricatured Islam, Catholicism, Judaism, and right-wing politicians.
In this interview, WNYC’s art critic Deborah Solomon explains that caricature is probably so hard to take because it is based on the distortion of a face away classical symmetry and toward grotesque, monster-like features.
“A caricature is a kind of assault on the body, and it can arouse a genuine sense of injury,” she said.
It's been a decade since a set of Danish cartoons portraying the prophet Mohammed incited rioting in the Muslim world. But Solomon said cartoon culture’s history of flare-ups and melt downs goes back to France in the 19th century, when cartoonist Honore Daumier was thrown in jail for portraying King Louis-Philippe in the shape of a pear.
Satirical art can also be seen in New York in a new show by filmmaker John Waters at the Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea.
Solomon said Waters began his career in the '70s as the Pope of Bad Taste, when he made his films "Pink Flamingos" and "Polyester."
“Over the years, he has become less transgressive, perhaps because we live in a culture where bad taste has become the norm and nothing any longer shocks,” she said. “He is the only funny conceptual artist I can think of. He is — like the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo — a rude satirist who sends up the absurdities of American culture, in particular our obsession with fame and eternal youth,” she said.
The exhibit includes a new 74-minute video called "Kiddie Flamingos" which is a children's version of the X-rated 1972 film "Pink Flamingos."
Waters said he thought that “Pink Flamingo” could be a perfect movie for kids, after taking out the sex and violence in it. “I hope this is a new kind of perversity, a G-rated kind of thing, where the audience knows the hideous that was in that movie, but the children do not.”
Do you agree that cartoons and satirical art can be more inflammatory than words? Why or why not? Join the conversation with a comment.
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