Cubism cartoon

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Modern art cartoon – cubism

Cubism cartoon.

A private view in a contemporary art gallery.
One of the quests is introduced as a cubist He’s a cube.

Cartoon drawn: 2019

Cartoon reference number: art036
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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An artist’s vision cartoon

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Artist painting the moon cartoon

Cartoon about artistic vision

A cartoon showing an artist creating a painting of something that is not actually visible with the unaided eye.

The cartoon shows one artist painting a landscape while another artist does a painting of the moon, which is a tiny detail in the landscape.
A cartoon about art, the moon, eyesight, vision, insight.
Original version drawn: 1998
This version drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art009
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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The etiquette of using a mobile phone in an art gallery

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The etiquette of using a cell phone in an art gallery cartoon

A cartoon about the etiquette of using a cell phone in an art gallery.

The cartoon shows a visitor to an art gallery talking on a mobile phone in the gallery.

The cartoon is about the tensions that can occur in public spaces concerning the inconsiderate use of mobile phones, especially if the user speaks in a load voice and seems oblivious to their surroundings.
Art galleries are usually quiet spaces (although there are some schools of thought that think that they should be more lively (and therefore more accessible to people who feel intimidated by the reverence normally afforded to art).
The other visitors to the gallery are looking very disapproving.

Cartoon drawn: 2019

Cartoon reference number: art015
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Art as a bid for immortality

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Art as a bid for immortality cartoon

A cartoon about creating art as a bid for immortality

The cartoon shows an artist working on a painting.
He is saying “While I’m alive I like to think of my work living on when I’m dead, but when I’m dead I probably won’t care one way or the other.”

The cartoon is about the way that people are often motivated in their lives to do things due to the awareness of their own mortality, and the paradox that once they have died they won’t care.
It is interesting to speculate on how much of human activity is motivated by this urge, and what position the human race would be in if we didn’t have the urge.

Cartoon drawn: 2019

Cartoon reference number: art014
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Art snob cartoon

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Art snob cartoon

Cartoon showing an art snob looking in distain at some people he judges as less cultured.

A cartoon about elitism in the arts and the snobbery of artistic and aesthetic taste.

Drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art008
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Mondrian cartoon

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Mondrian cartoon

A cartoon of a man looking at a map that shows the location of a museum dedicated to the art of Piet Mondrian.

The map is in the form of a Mondrian painting.

Original cartoon drawn: 2006
This version: 2019

Cartoon reference number: art032
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Rodin thinker cartoon

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Rodin Thinker cartoon

Cartoon about Rodin’s sculpture, the Thinker

A cartoon showing August Rodin at work on his sculpture, the Thinker, with the person who is modelling for the sculpture.

Rodin is asking the model “What do you think?”

Original version drawn: 2007
This version drawn: 2019

Cartoon reference number: art007
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Filed Under: ART

Describing visual art in words

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Cartoon about the problem of trying to describe visual art in words

Cartoon about the problem of trying to describe visual art in words.

A cartoon about the way that words obscure as much as enlighten.

Original version drawn: 2007
This version drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art006
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Environmental art cartoon – biodegradable art

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Environmental art cartoon – biodegradable art

An environmental art cartoon, showing a piece of contemporary artwork that is 100% biodegradable.

Because the sculpture depicted in the cartoon is biodegradable it will have a limited lifespan that will make it unappealing to art collectors (never mind art conservators).

A cartoon about the art market, art conservation, environmentalism, transient art, gallerists.

Cartoon drawn: 2019

Cartoon reference number: art035
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Art gallery exhibit – cartoon – what is your greatest wish?

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Audience participation art cartoon

Cartoon about art that asks people questions.

A cartoon about audience participation art installations.

The cartoon is set inside an art gallery, showing an installation in which the participant has to write down their greatest wish.
A cartoon about art predicting the future of society and the world and about the fulfilment of people’s desires and wishes.

Drawn: 2019

Cartoon reference number: art005
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Pop art cartoon – Bridget Riley style op art painting

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op art cartoon - Bridget Riley barcode

A Pop Art cartoon, showing a black and white striped canvas in the style of Bridget Riley.

The painting is of a product bar code.
The idea is that although the canvas looks like a piece of abstract art it is in fact a painting of a real object as represented by its bar code.

The cartoon is partly a comment on the digitisation of the physical world.
A cartoon about pop art, op art, modern art, Bridget Riley, digitization, artistic representation.

Original cartoon drawn: 2012
This version: 2019

Cartoon reference number: art033
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Sponsorship in the arts cartoon

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Sponsorship, censorship and ethics in the arts cartoon

Cartoon about sponsorship in the arts

A cartoon about a possible conflict between sponsorship in the arts and censorship in the arts.

Cartoon drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art010
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Gormley Angel of the North cartoon

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Gormley Angel of the North cartoon

Cartoon of the Angel of the North by Antony Gormley

The Angel of the North with a propeller hat

Original version drawn: 2006
This version drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art001
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Art gallery funding cartoon

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Art gallery financial model cartoon

Art gallery funding cartoon.

The cartoon shows an art gallery that uses advertising on its gallery walls to generate income.

The cartoon shows visitors to an art gallery saying “It’s the new financial model for the gallery – every fourth image is an advert.”

Cartoon drawn: 2019

Cartoon reference number: art020
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Christo and Jeanne-Claude art unwrapped cartoon

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Christo artist cartoon

Cartoon about the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude

A cartoon about Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009) whose signature works were of objects and buildings wrapped in fabric.

The caption of the cartoon is : “I once bought one of their works as a birthday present – and he unwrapped it.”
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s most famous pieces are the wrapping of the Reichstag in Berlin; Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1983; the Pont Neuf Wrapped in Paris, 1985; The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 2005; The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo, Italy, 2016; Mastaba, Hyde Park, London, 2018.

Original version drawn: 2007
This version drawn: 2019

Cartoon reference number: art030
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Art collectors cartoon – Donald Judd and antique buddhas

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Art collectors cartoon - Donald Judd and buddhas

Art collectors cartoon – Donald Judd and antique buddhas.

The cartoon shows a soirée in an apartment belonging to art collectors.
One of the collectors collects Donald Judd sculptures, while the other collects antique buddha figures.
The buddhas are displayed on a Donald Judd installation.

Cartoon drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art041
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Understanding art – cartoon

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Understanding contemporary art cartoon

Understanding contemporary art cartoon.

The cartoon shows a visitor to an art gallery checking the art establishment’s opinion about a work of contemporary art before forming an opinion of his own.

A cartoon about the difficulty of appreciating and understanding some contemporary art.
Contemporary art can often have oblique and esoteric meanings and is frequently aesthetically challenging.

Original version drawn: 2012
This version drawn: 2019

There’s an earlier version of this cartoon here.

Cartoon reference number: art016
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Michelangelo David cartoon

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Michelangelo David sculpture cartoon

Michelangelo David and Goliath cartoon.

The cartoon shows the sculpture of David by Michelangelo.
An observer is commenting “If that’s his David I’d love to see his Goliath.”.

Original version drawn: 2006
This version drawn: 2019

Cartoon reference number: art017
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Filed Under: ART

Living organic material in contemporary art – cartoon

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contemporary art cartoon genetic sculpture

Cartoon of sculptures created using organic material.

The concept behind this cartoon is that there is a way of incorporating living genetic material or dna into contemporary artworks so that the material manifests itself in some bizarre and unsettling way.

Cartoon drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art044
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Cartoon – contemporary art aimed at the selfie taking Instagram generation

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Instagram-friendly art cartoon

Art aimed at the Instagram generation.

The cartoon shows artworks in an art gallery in which the works are in the form of speech bubbles with quotes in them.
The quotes are clichés poking fun at modern art and contemporary art: But is it art? and A child of six could do it!
Gallery visitors pose beneath the quotes and have selfies or photos taken of themselves.

Cartoon drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art056
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Conceptual art cartoon – invisible art

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Conceptual contemporary art cartoon – invisible art

Contemporary art cartoon – conceptual art.

A contemporary art cartoon showing a conceptual sculptural artwork on a plinth where the material that the work is composed of is pure thought.

Cartoon drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art055
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Social media in contemporary art cartoon

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contemporary art cartoon emoji

Digital language enters contemporary art.

The cartoon shows a contemporary art painting that resembles a social media emoji.
The fact that the visitors to the art gallery think that the painting is capturing emotion and is expressing emotion is partly meant to show the emotional banality and superficiality of a lot of social media.

Cartoon drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art048
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Giacometti cartoon – selfie stick man

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Giacometti cartoon - selfie stick man

A cartoon about Giacometti’s stick men sculptures.

The figure in the cartoon is taking a selfie of himself, with his phone on a selfie stick.
The sculpture is titles Selfie Stick Man.

Cartoon drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art043
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Marcel Duchamp cartoon – urinal drinking fountain

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Dada cartoon - Marcel Duchamp urinal drinking fountain

Dada cartoon – Marcel Duchamp’s urinal drinking fountain.

The cartoon shows a fictitious artwork by Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp in the form of a urinal mounted on a wall.
The work is titled Drinking Fountain.
The artwork is based on Duchamp’s work Fountain.

Cartoon drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art042
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Antony Gormley cartoon – at the psychiatrist’s

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Antony Gormley cartoon narcissist

Is Antony Gormley a narcissist?

The cartoon is about the psychological motives behind Antony Gormley’s desire to populate the planet with multiple representations of himself.
I’ve heard him say that he’s been accused of narcissism. But then what artist can’t be accused of more than a bit of self-obsession?

Original version drawn: 2007
This version drawn: 2019

Cartoon reference number: art047
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Colour blind art cartoon

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contemporary art colour blind cartoon

A cartoon of a piece of contemporary art in the form of a colour blindness test.

As with a lot of contemporary art the viewers of the art are trying to work out what the piece is about.
One of them says that he can’t see anything in it. This is because he is colour blind and can’t see the number five in the piece.

The colour blindness test is the Ishihara test, in which numbers are created from differently coloured dots in a field of other dots. Colour blind people can’t always see the numbers, depending on their form of colour blindness.

Cartoon drawn: 2019

Cartoon reference number: art045
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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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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Environmental cartoon book

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

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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