Christo obituary cartoon. Died 31st May 2020

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Christo

Cartoon about the artist Christo

An obituary cartoon about Christo Javacheff, who died on 31st May 2020.
The cartoon shows a young Christo wrapping sweets.

The caption of the cartoon is : Famous Artists in Their Student Days: Christo’s Holiday Job
Drawn: 1st June 2020
Cartoon reference number: a779
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Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown enforcement cartoon

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coronavirus covid-19 lockdown enforcement cartoon

Covid-19 coronavirus cartoon – enforcing the lockdown.

As part of the coronavirus lockdown people are allowed outside only for limited reasons, one being taking exercise.
In city parks the police have been moving people on who they see sitting on park benches, as this is not exercise.

A cartoon about policing the lockdown, social isolating.
Drawn: April 2020
Cartoon reference number: a772
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Coronavirus cartoon – myths about how covid-19 started

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coronavirus myth cartoon

Covid-19 coronavirus cartoon – a myth about how it started.

A cartoon about the myth that the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic started because the virus was released from a lab in China.

The person in the cartoon is saying “Here’s a REALLY worrying virus-myth statistic – an incredible 75% of the population don’t believe it started in a lab!”
The point of the cartoon is that people who believe that the virus started in a lab are just as certain that they are right as the people who believe that it wasn’t. The believers in the theory think that they are clear-sighted enough to see round the official obfuscation about the matter.
A cartoon about conspiracy theories, gullibility, psychological delusion.
Drawn: April 2020
Cartoon reference number: a773

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Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic face mask cartoon

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coronavirus cartoon

Covid-19 coronavirus cartoon.

The cartoon showing a person wearing a face mask because of the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic.

The face mask displays the slogan “Keep Calm and Carry on”.
The cartoon is intended to be a positive cartoon about how to deal with the psychological consequences of the pandemic.
Drawn: 6 March 2020
Cartoon reference number: a771

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Book of ART CARTOONS

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visual arts cartoon book humour humor jokes

New book of cartoons about visual art

Cartoons ranging from Vermeer to contemporary art

 
visual art cartoon book link

Published December 2019
Order it from your local bookshop or buy it through Amazon, such as:


 

A book of 114 full colour cartoons on the subject of the visual arts.
The cartoons in the book include several new versions of cartoons that are on this site along with many that have been created specially for the book.
The targets of the jokes range from artists themselves to the audiences in art galleries, and from art classes to art techniques.
There are jokes about specific artists – Picasso, Dali, Magritte, Mondrian, Vermeer.
There are jokes about the art market and about art criticism and art theory.

visual art cartoon book link

Environment cartoon book

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The Beast That Ate the Earth
Environment cartoon book

Versions of many of the environmental cartoons on this site can be found in my book, The Beast That Ate the Earth.


I”ve been drawing cartoons on environmental matters since the early 1970s.
The book was published in 2004 and contains about a hundred cartoons in black and white.

The book is available through Amazon.
Such as at:
Amazon UK

Amazon USA

Amazon Germany

A cartoon about the gender pay gap as it applies to trans people

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gender reassignment and pay gap cartoon

Cartoon about the gender pay gap and transgender people

The cartoon shows a person who’s undergone gender reassignment from male to female being given a pay cut in alignment with their new status as female.

A cartoon about salary and wage differentials and the gender pay gap applied to trans people.
Drawn: Jan 2018
Cartoon reference number: a777
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Fire prevention equipment factory on fire – cartoon about irony

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ironic fire in sprinkler factory cartoon

Cartoon of a sprinkler factory on fire

The cartoon shows an ironic situation in which a factory that manufactures fire prevention equipment is on fire.

I think that this cartoon was probably inspired by the observation that many fires in buildings are caused when the building is being renovated.
A cartoon about irony and health and safety (amongst other things).
Drawn: June 2018
Cartoon reference number: a776
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Remembrance bench cartoon

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in memory of ... who loved this spot cartoon

Cartoon showing a bench with remembrance plate on it.

The plaque on the bench reads “In memory of Bob who loved this spot.”

The bench is situated in a landscape that is composed exclusively of dots.
The dots in the cartoon remind me of the art created by Yayoi Kusama.
Cartoon reference number: a774
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Filed Under: ART

Cartoon about plastic pollution

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plastic pollution cartoon

Plastic pollution cartoon.

The cartoon cliche of a desert island used to make a point about the pollution caused by plastic.

A person on a desert island throwing a message in a plastic bottle into the sea.
Cartoon reference number: a764b

There’s a colour version of this cartoon here.

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Plastic pollution cartoon

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plastic pollution desert island cartoon

Desert island plastic pollution cartoon.

A cartoon that uses the cartoon cliche of a desert island to make a point about the pollution caused by plastic.

The cartoon shows a person on a desert island throwing a message in a bottle into the sea.
Cartoon reference number: a764

There’s a black and white version of this cartoon here.

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Electric powered cars cartoon

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electric car cartoon

Electric cars cartoon
Sustainable energy cartoon

A cartoon showing electrically powered cars filling with fuel at a filling station. Instead of filling at petrol pumps they are filling at a small electricity pylon

Although this cartoon doesn’t make a comment on the use of electricity to power vehicles, I suspect that it won’t turn out to be as sustainable as its advocates claim.
A cartoon about the environment, ecology, transport systems, hybrid cars, oil-free economy, battery power, fossil fuel dependency, power supply, energy sources.

Drawn: 2011

Cartoon reference number: env061

You can find a colour version of this cartoon here.

Are biofuels sustainable?

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Unsustainable biofuel cartoon

A cartoon about unsustainable biofuel use.

The cartoon shows a car driving through a huge biofuel plantation. The driver of the car is saying that the plantation is so large that the nearest filling station is an hour away at the other side.

How much land is needed to grow biofuels?
A cartoon about unsustainable energy, environmental impact, biodiesel, unsustainable and sustainable land use, energy consumption, transport, petrol, oil and gas substitutes.

Drawn: 2009

Cartoon reference number: env053c
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Our course into the future?

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Environmental cartoon: The human race driving itself over the precipice

A cartoon about the course that the human race is possibly taking.

A possible problem with progress – cartoon

The human race ignoring the warning signs and recklessly carrying on along the same road – resulting in it driving itself over the precipice and into the abyss.
The cartoon uses a car to denote the human race, the metaphor applies to other areas of human endeavour other than transport.

Cartoon reference number: env051b
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The destructive impact of tourism

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Destructive impact of tourism cartoon

A cartoon highlighting a problem with mass tourism – the destruction or degradation of the tourist destination due to the impact of the tourists themselves.

Here the tourist destination is a world heritage site – exactly the sort of place that is degraded by insensitive of excessive tourism.

Mass tourism, tourist, holidays, holiday destinations.
Original version drawn: 1990
Cartoon reference number: env123
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Cartoon about the fallacy of progress

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transport cartoon - traffic gridlock

Environment cartoon about transport systems
Philosophy cartoon about the fallacy of progress

A cartoon about progress, in which the progress (represented here by road transport) creates its own problems.
Is progress a good thing?

Cars at a standstill, gridlocked in a traffic jam symbolising progress (or the lack of it) in transport planning and the excessive use of cars as personal transport.
Also a cartoon about the philosophical question of whether progress is necessarily automatically a good thing.

Created: 2015.
Original version (with older vehicles) created: 1991

Cartoon reference number: env050b
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Happy New Year 2020

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Happy New Year 2020 father time tripping

Happy New Year 2020 cartoon.

The cartoon shows the old year 2019 (Father Time) pushing the baby New Year 2020 in a baby buggy. Father Time is tripping over the base of a Happy New Year sign, sending the new year rushing forwards out of control towards a cliff edge.

Cartoon reference number: a770

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Notre-Dame Fire Restoration Fund/Sackler boycott cartoon

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Notre Dame fire restoration fund cartoon

Notre-Dame fire restoration fund/Sackler boycott cartoon.
(Drawn on the night of the fire, before the actual donations controversy that followed.)

15 April 2019.
This is a cartoon that deliberately links two current news stories: the restoration of Notre-Dame cathedral following the devastating fire and the boycotting of funding from the Sackler family charitable trusts.
The cartoon was drawn on the evening of the fire, and predates the controversy about the donations from large businesses that developed in the following days.
The cartoon is primarily about the current controversy in some western societies concerning the assumed ethical standards of the donors who contribute funds to institutions such as art galleries and religious buildings.

The Sackler family are major benefactors to many institutions. Only a week ago I was in Westminster Abbey in London where I noticed their name on a recently restored stained glass window to which I assume they had contributed funding.
However, the Sackler family own Purdue Pharma, a company that produces the prescription painkiller OxyContin that is said to be addictive. Thus there are calls to boycott any charitable funding offered by the Sackler family.
Of course the Sackler family are far from being the only donors to charitable causes who may be involved in supposedly tainted money. It could possibly be argued that any organisation that had enough money to distribute in such lavish ways must have come about it by somewhat dubious means, depending on one’s standards.
Cartoon reference number: a769

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Banksy parody

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banksy girl with balloon parody - value or price in art market

Banksy parody.

Girl with balloon

A parody of Banksy’s Girl with Balloon image, with the balloon replaced by a £ sign.

The image was inspired by the sale of the version of Banksy’s Girl with Balloon that shredded itself immediately after it was sold at Sotheby’s for a very large sum of money, thus increasing its value even more.
Was the work intended to be a protest at the nature of the contemporary art market? And was the fact that the piece immediately increased in value following its shredding part of Banksy’s plan, and a deliberate dig at the art market? Also, was the piece actually supposed to go all the way though the shredder and end up as a pile of spaghetti on the floor but for the fact that the shredder jammed?

Cartoon reference number: a766

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The green man – cartoon

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Cartoon - the green man (as a tree)

The green man.

The concept of the green man stretches back to antiquity, and is usually depicted as a head covered in leaves and foliage.
In this cartoon version, the green man is depicted as a tree, where the only evidence of a human link is the man’s legs protruding below the tree’s foliage and forming the tree trunk.

Concept: 2010

Cartoon reference number: a761

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A world in which there is no countryside, only city development

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Cartoon - a city scene where the only evidence of nature is on a traffic island

An urban landscape with no trees or grass except on a traffic roundabout.

A person in a passing car is saying to their children “Look kids – the countryside!”
A cartoon about sprawling urban development, green spaces, the concrete jungle, nature being squeezed out, urbanisation, urbanization, city gardens,

 Drawn: 2016
Cartoon reference number: a760

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Cell phone dependency (or mobile phone dependency) cartoon

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Cartoon - cell phone dependency

Dependency on mobile phones – cartoon.

People are beginning to rely to an excessive extent on their mobile phone (cell phone) and on digital electronic technology.
This cartoon illustrates this by depicting tourists who are using the sat-nav function of their mobile phones to navigate to a hotel. The gps has stopped working and they don’t know how to find the hotel, even though it’s plainly in full view.

Cartoon reference number: a758

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The “post truth” society

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Cartoon about ignoring the truth in favour of prejudice

Post truth cartoon.
Truth and facts being ignored in favour of emotional or prejudiced viewpoints.

The concept of ignoring the facts when reaching a decision about something, and letting the heart rather than the head rule, seems to be a phenomenon that’s on the rise. It has recently been labelled ‘post truth’.
In the cartoon I’ve linked it to the phenomenon of conspiracy theories, which are frequently used as a way of justifying irrational or unproven ideas.
The rise of post truth tendencies is said to be linked to people’s increasing use of social media via phones and electronic media and the tendency for internet algorithms to send people only information that they already agree with – however the tendency has always been there in the way that people purchase newspapers that agree with their political and other views.
It may also be linked to the current mistrust of experts.

Cartoon reference number: a756

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Donald Trump elected president of the United States – the future looks grim.

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do you remember where you were when trump was first elected?

“Do you remember where you were when trump was first elected?”

A cartoon showing two people in a devastated landscape, with a tattered stars and stripes flag.
One of the people is asking the other if he remembers the time when Donald Trump was first elected as president of the United States (implying that the degraded landscape in which they are sitting is a result of the Trump presidency).

Cartoon reference number: a753

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The Grim Reaper pursuing old people

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grim reaper pursuing elderly people

The grim reaper following elderly people – and getting closer all the time.

The personification of death in the form of the grim reaper pursuing an elderly couple.
The old people are slowing down due to old age and infirmity, thus allowing the grim reaper to catch up with them.

Cartoon reference number: a088a
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The Grim Reaper with a baby Grim Reaper

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grim reaper and baby grim reaper in pushchair

The grim reaper with a baby grim reaper in a pushchair

The personification of death in the form of the grim reaper pushing a pushchair or baby buggy in which sits an infant grim reaper.
Part of the concept behind the cartoon is to show a link between birth and death.
It’s also meant to be humorous because it humanises the grim reaper.

Cartoon reference number: a751

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The grim reaper upgrades from a scythe to a combine harvester

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grim reaper buys a combine harvester

The grim reaper buys a combine harvester

The personification of death in the form of the grim reaper upgrades from his scythe to a combine harvester. The harvester is here a symbol of much greater ‘harvesting’ power than the scythe – in other words a means of achieving a much greater death toll, similar to a weapon of mass destruction.

Cartoon reference number: a750

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A tribute to William Heath Robinson

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Tribute to William Heath Robinson cartoon

Heath Robinson style cartoon - detail

Detail

This cartoon was drawn as a tribute to William Heath Robinson on the occasion of the opening of the new Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner (where Heath Robinson lived).

This cartoon shows a Heath Robinson style contraption and is captioned “A contraption for capturing unusually shaped clouds”.

Ref a749
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A common view of modern art – the Emperor’s New Clothes

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emperor's new clothes modern art cartoon

Jokes about art gallery goers admiring blank canvases are a staple for cartoonists who want to satirise modern art.
Here’s one of my contributions (although I like this sort of art).

Interestingly, the abstract expressionist painter Ad Reinhardt, who painted canvases that were uniformly black, also worked as a cartoonist who satirised modern art.

Ref a748
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How social media confirms your prejudiced – creating a ‘phoney’ world view

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phone filter bubble algorithm

How social media in phones filter information – giving the user a ‘phoney’ (or phony) world view

How social media etc via phones and other digital devices reinforce prejudices by filtering information so that the user only sees information that conforms to the user’s existing biases.

The ‘filter bubble’ of social media and other digital technology is similar to the ‘culture bubble’ of real-world travel and peer group opinions and attitudes.
Ref a745
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How did you vote in the Brexit referendum, Daddy?

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Brexit cartoon - How did you vote daddy?

A cartoon showing a man who is regretting voting for Britain to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.

The image is partly a comment on the extreme criticism of ‘leave’ voters by those who voted to stay in the EU.

Based on the WW1 recruitment poster “Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?”
Ref a746
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Brexit referendum cartoon – Britain votes to leave the EU

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Brexit cartoon Union flag in person's face

Brexit cartoon – the winds of change.

The cartoon shows a British person with a British flag (union jack) blown into his face so that he can’t see where he’s going.

The image may show a person who can’t see the future ahead now that Britain has voted to leave the EU, with the flag representing Britain.
Alternatively, it may show a person who was blinded by patriotism before the referendum and thus voted to leave the EU on those grounds. This doesn’t imply that everyone who voted to leave the EU in the referendum are blinkered nationalists, just that blinkered nationalists probably voted for Brexit and thus managed to get many other Leave voters tarred with the same brush.
Cartoon reference number: a742b
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