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  • Michelangelo’s David cartoon. If that’s his David I’d love to see his Goliath.

    michelangelo cartoon - david and goliath

    Michelangelo cartoon. Statue of David.

    Michelangelo’s David cartoon. What would his Goliath have looked like?

    A cartoon showing a woman looking at Michelangelo’s statue of David. She’s thinking “If that’s his David I’d love to see his Goliath!”
    Michelangelo’s full name is Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni.

    A later version of this cartoon can be seen here.

    Cartoon reference number: a076
    This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
    See the book here.
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  • Cartoon. Bucolic genre paintings – old and modern compared

    Cartoon - contemporary bucolic genre art

    Art cartoon: an old painting of the countryside and a modern painting of the countryside. The old painting shows a bustling farm scene. The new painting shows a huge boring field.

    Bucolic genre painting cartoon, showing an old view of industrious farm workers and a modern painting featuring a vast empty field containing nothing but a combine harvester.

    A cartoon illustrating the way that farm work and the countryside have changed over the years.
    The cartoon also questions whether the assumption that because the old rural scene is more picturesque than the more inhuman modern scene it was necessarily better. The viewer in the cartoon seems to think it was, but is he correct?
    Cartoon reference number: a074
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  • Lichtenstein parody cartoon – turning comic book images into art

    lichtenstein parody - comic images into art

    Cartoon: Roy Lichtenstein parody – turning comic book images into art.

    Cartoon/illustration: Roy Lichtenstein parody – turning comic book images into art.

    A cartoon illustrating the way that pop artist Roy Lichtenstein copied or plagiarised images from cheap comic books – and through the act of transferring them to canvas transformed them, in the eyes of the art world, into fine art.
    Does such work count as plagiarism, copyright infringement and copyright violation?
    The creators of the original comic book art get no credit or mention as creators of the work.
    They are anonymous, while Roy Lichtenstein gets all of the credit (and money!).
    A cartoon that questions what is art.
    Concept: 2003
    Cartoon reference number: a065b

  • David Hockney cartoon. Hockney trees through the seasons paintings (and smoking cigarettes)

    David Hockney serial landscapes through the seasons

    A cartoon about David Hockney and his landscape paintings of the East Yorkshire wolds.

    Cartoon. Since his move to Bridlington artist David Hockney has been painting in the East Yorkshire wolds, studying and capturing the changing light and colour through the seasons.
    His paintings are to be displayed in a major exhibition of his work, The Bigger Picture, at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, between January and April 2012.
    The exhibition includes Hockney’s recent experiments in digital painting on an iPad.
    The cartoon shows a series of David Hockney paintings of the same group of trees at different times of the year, spring, summer, autumn, winter, with the differing light and the different appearance of the trees. The final painting shows the trees burnt down due to a fire caused by a discarded cigarette end.
    David Hockney is famous for his commitment to the freedom to smoke cigarettes.
    The joke is that one day his enthusiastic smoking habit may have a down side (although Hockney would argue that that’s his business, not yours).

    A cartoon about David Hockney, cigarettes, smoking bans, freedom to smoke, fag ends, cigarette butts, the tobacco industry.
    This cartoon first appeared in Private Eye magazine.
    Cartoon drawn: 2012
    Cartoon reference number: hoc003

  • David Hockney cartoon. East Yorkshire renamed ‘David Hockney country’

    cartoon - east yorkshire renamed david hockney land

    A cartoon about David Hockney and his landscape paintings of the East Yorkshire wolds.

    Cartoon. Artist David Hockney’s paintings of the East Yorkshire wolds since his move to Bridlington are amongst his most popular images.
    The cartoon shows the East Yorkshire wolds renamed David Hockney country – a common marketing or branding strategy employed by parts of Britain that can be associated with famous artists or writers (Robin Hood country, James Herriot country and Bronte country are other examples).

    A cartoon about David Hockney, tourism, tourist branding, popular art, regional identity.
    Cartoon drawn: 2012
    Cartoon reference number: hoc002

  • David Hockney cartoon. David Hockney iPad arts cartoon

    david hockney paintings ipad app

    A cartoon about painting on an iPad, as popularised by David Hockney.

    Cartoon. David Hockney iPad art.
    Artist David Hockney’s recent work has involved painting directly onto an iPad.
    It won’t be long before a special ‘David Hockney’ app will be available to let other people convert their photographs into David Hockney style images.
    David Hockney’s iPad paintings (and other works) are on show in a major exhibition of his work, A Bigger Picture, at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, January – April 2012.

    A cartoon about iPads, apps, digital painting, David Hockney, digital image filters, popular art, iPad art, iPad painting app.
    Cartoon drawn: 2012
    Cartoon reference number: hoc001

  • Catalogue raissoné of Pablo Picasso and Johannes Vermeer compared

    picasso and vermeer complete works books compared

    A cartoon comparing the artistic outputs of Johannes Vermeer and Pablo Picasso.

    The cartoon shows a book that contains the complete works of Picasso and a book that contains the complete works of Vermeer.

    Picasso’s artistic output was huge, in the order of thousands of works of art, while Vermeer only produced a few dozen paintings in his lifetime.
    Cartoon reference number: a066b
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  • Cartoon. The complete works of Vermeer and Picasso compared

    picasso and vermeer complete works books compared

    Cartoon – the complete works of Johannes Vermeer and Pablo Picasso compared.

    The cartoon shows a book that contains the complete works of Picasso and a book that contains the complete works of Vermeer.

    Picasso was very prolific as an artist, producing thousands of works of art, while Vermeer only produced a handful of paintings in his lifetime.
    Cartoon reference number: a066

    There’s a colour version of this cartoon here.

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  • Roy Lichtenstein cartoon parody on the search for meaning to life

    roy lichtenstein cartoon

    A cartoon parody of a Roy Lichtenstein painting.

    Roy Lichtenstein’s art lends itself very well to parody and spoof in cartoons, not least because the paintings themselves are often almost direct copies of images lifted from the pages of comic books.

    A Roy Lichtenstein style parody illustration on the subject of the meaning of life, the search for meaning, philosophy, existentialism, existentialist angst, what’s the meaning of life?.
    Cartoon reference number: a065
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  • Baroque art cartoon – looking at a book of Tiepolo ceiling paintings

    Cartoon. Looking at a book of Tiepolo ceiling paintings

    Baroque cartoon
    Ceiling painting cartoon
    Tiepolo cartoon

    Looking at a book of Tiepolo ceiling paintings by lying on back.
    Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696 – 1770) was a Venetian baroque painter who was famous for his paintings on ceilings, and for his frescoes

    A cartoon about different ways of looking at art or at things in general. Italian art, artists from Venice, studying art, art books, art appreciation

    Cartoon reference: art113

  • Modern Art Cartoon. Tracey Emin unmade and Marcel Duchamp readymade

    Cartoon. Tracey Emin bed and Duchamp ready-made

    Modern Art Cartoon
    Contemporary Art Cartoon
    Tracey Emin, My Bed, compared to Marcel Duchamp, Fountain (unmade bed, ready-made artwork)

    Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (a urinal) was termed a ‘readymade’ by Duchamp.
    Tracey Emin’s bed may be termed an ‘unmade” or a “ready unmade” – because it’s an unmade bed

    A cartoon about controversial art, YBAs, Young British Artists, dada, dadaism

    Cartoon drawn: 2011
    Cartoon reference number: tra881
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  • Johannes Vermeer cartoon

    Johannes Vermeer cartoon

    Cartoon showing Johannes Vermeer at work painting, and bemoaning the fact that he has to accurately reproduce all of the squares on the floor. He is painting The Glass of Wine.

    A pastiche depicting two Vermeer paintings – the Glass of Wine and the Art of Painting that are typical of the Dutch genre paintings of highly detailed and finished paintings of interiors.

    A cartoon showing the humdrum nature and slog behind the effort that frequently goes into the creative process.

    This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
    See the book here.
    Cartoon drawn: 2006
    Cartoon reference number: a053b
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  • Cartoon: Leonardo da Vinci, the Last Supper, and contemporary interior design

    Cartoon showing Leonardo da Vinci Last Super painted over for new minimalist look

    Cartoon showing Leonardo da Vinci’s mural the Last Supper being painted over with white paint to create a new minimalist look to the chapel walls

    Cartoon showing Leonardo da Vinci’s mural The Last Supper (on the walls of the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan) being painted over with white paint to give the church a contemporary modern minimalist look.

    A cartoon that illustrates the tendency for modern fashionable trends (in interior design and elsewhere) to be seen as superior to previous ones – at least temporarily. The trends may be regretted later.

    Cartoon reference number: art017x
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  • Gilbert and George merchandise – the Gilbert and George salt and pepper set

    Gilbert and George cartoon merchandise

    An image in the style of Gilbert and George, showing Gilbert and George as a salt and pepper set.

    A pastiche of the art of Gilbert and George illustrating the merchandising of art and of celebrity culture. I’m not saying that Gilbert and George are particularly prone to being merchandised – it’s just that the two of them make such a good salt and pepper cruet set that it seems a shame that such a thing doesn’t exist. Part of the humour of this concept lies in the fact that hardly anyone can remember which one is Gilbert and which one is George.
    It’s also a comment about the superficiality of contemporary society and the trivialisation of culture.

    An illustration about the consumer society, merchandising, celebrity artists, contemporary art.

    Original concept: 2006
    Cartoon reference number: art016x
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  • Museum cartoon: an exhibition of vending machine cups

    museum exhibition of drinking vessels - from fifteenth century to plastic vending machine cups

    Cartoon of a museum exhibition of drinking vessels

    The vessels from the fifteenth century are crafted with care.
    The vessels from the twenty-first century are plastic vending machine cups.
    Of course only privileged people had access to the fine products of earlier centuries, so this cartoon also says something about the benefits of cheap mass production

    An illustration of the throw-away consumerism of contemporary society, the consumer society, mass production, plastics

    Original version drawn: 2000
    Cartoon reference number: art015x
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  • Contemporary art cartoon. The Art of Repulsion

    Cartoon showing contemporary sculpture in an art galley. The sculpture called Bogey Man is made from human bogeys

    Cartoon showing a contemporary sculpture in an art galley

    The scuplture is in the modern genre of repulsive art. The sculpture is called “Bogey Man” and is made from human bogeys.
    Cartoon illustrating the type of contemporary art that aims to shock and revolt. A comment on the type of artwork that is made of substances such as human bodily fluids and excrement – feces, faeces, or fæces, shit, urine and such-like.
    To some extent it’s about the superficial masquerading as the profound, which is true of a fair amount of contemporay art (though by no means all, as I’m a fan of the stuff myself).

    An illustration about contemporary art, modern sculpture, unusual art materials, repulsion, charlatanism, decadence.

    Original version drawn: 2000
    Cartoon reference number: art014x
    A version of this cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
    See the book here.
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  • Antony Gormley sculpture – cartoon

    Cartoon showing visitors to an Antony Gormley exhibition. A Gormley sculpture is holding a placard directing people to the exhibition

    Antony Gormley cartoon

    Cartoon showing visitors to an Antony Gormley exhibition. A Gormley sculpture is holding a placard directing people to the exhibition

    An illustration about contemporary art, public sculpture, art exhibitions, celebrity artists

    Cartoon drawn: 2007
    Cartoon reference number: gor001

  • Antony Gormley cartoon: Angel of the North with propellerhead

    Antony Gormley: Angel of the North propellorhead - cartoon

    Antony Gormley cartoon
    Angel of the North with propellerhead

    Sculptor Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North with a propellor on its head.
    The propeller is to accompany the aeroplane wings of the sculpture, thus making the Angel of the North more like an aeroplane

    .
    Click below for a related cartoon:
    The Angel of the North in flight
    Cartoon drawn: 2007
    Cartoon reference number: art010x
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  • Contemporary art cartoon. Antony Gormley, sculptor, on the psychiatrist’s couch

    Antony Gormley on the psychiatrist's couch

    Contemporary art cartoon
    Antony Gormley on the psychiatrist’s couch
    An artist on the analyst’s couch

    Antony Gormley’s sculpture consists mostly of creating endless casts of himself

    A cartoon about the psychology of art, the personality of artists, the artistic temperament, psychoanalysis and art
    Cartoon drawn: 2007
    Cartoon reference number: art009x
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  • Antony Gormley cartoon. The psychology of the self portrait in art

    Antony Gormley cartoon - psychology of the self portrait in art

    Antony Gormley cartoon
    The psychology behind Gormley body casts

    A woman looking at one of Antony Gormley’s endless body casts of his naked body. She is saying ” He’s certainly showing off the size of his ego.”

    Antony Gormley is famous for his sculptures of the human body.
    Most of his sculpture is in the form of body casts of his own body.
    The cartoon is about the motivation and psychology behind producing endless representations of oneself in artistic form
    Cartoon drawn: 2007
    Cartoon reference number: art008x
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  • Pablo Picasso cartoon

    Pablo Picasso cartoon. sculpture: Tete du Femme

    Pablo Picasso cartoon
    Modern art cartoon

    Pablo Picasso creating a sculpture of a woman’s head (Tete du Femme), while saying to the woman that the work will make her so famous that soon everyone in the world will recognise her when she walks down the street. The typically Picassoesque sculpture is so abstract that the person it is modelled on is unrecognisable in the work

    A cartoon about modern art, cubism, cubist art, abstract art, portraiture, sculpture, portrait art, artist’s muse, model.

     

    Cartoon drawn: 2011
    Cartoon reference number: art004x
    Another version of this cartoon is available:
    Pablo Picasso cartoon
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  • Surrealism cartoon: Salvador Dali cartoon of floppy watch painting

    Surrealism cartoon: Salvador Dali floppy artist's palette

    Surrealism cartoon
    Salvador Dali cartoon

    Cartoon based on Salvador Dali; The Persistence of Memory

    Salvador Dali floppy watch painting, in which the palette that Dali is using is floppy like the watches in the painting
    Cartoon drawn: 2006
    Cartoon reference number: dali002
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  • Surrealism cartoon: Salvador Dali lobster telephone and shrimp cell phone

    Salvador Dali cartoon - lobster cell phone

    Surrealism cartoon
    Salvador Dali cartoon: Lobster Telephone

    Cartoon showing surrealist artist Salvador Dali’s Lobster Telephone – and his less well known Shrimp Cell Phone (or in Britain, Shrimp Mobile Phone)

    Dali’s Lobster Telephone is also titled Aphrodisiac Telephone
    The joke of course is that a shrimp is to a lobster as a cell phone is to a landline phone (especially an old fashioned one as in Dali’s lobster phone)
    Just to clarify things – I made the shrimp phone up
    Cartoon drawn: 2007
    Cartoon reference number: art001x
    There’s another version of this cartoon here.
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  • Moon cartoon or art cartoon – painting a landscape painting of the moon

    Moon cartoon. Artist painting the moon including the craters

    Moon cartoon
    Art cartoon

    A painter painting a landscape painting featuring the moon in the sky, while another artist paints a picture of the moon that’s a close-up of the lunar surface featuring the craters

    The first artist says to the second artist “You’ve got very good eyesight”
    Cartoon reference number: mon008
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  • Contemporary art cartoons

    contemporary art cartoons

    Contemporary art cartoon heading illustration

    An illustration featuring a sculpture of the words contemporary art

    In this drawing the words contemporary art are depicted as sculptural letters in the self consciously naive crude artless style of some contemporary art

    Ref: a670

  • Illustration about food obsession

    food obsession - Magritte pastiche

    Cartoon about food obsession
    Magritte pastiche

    An illustration about eating disorders or obsessive food disorders, drawn as an editorial illustration for an article about the subject in the Guardian newspaper
    The cartoon is based on Rene Magritte’s painting of a person with an apple in front of his face
    The beefburger in front of the woman’s face represents obsession with food

    Notice that the hills in the background are in the form of food, and the clouds in the sky are in the form of loaves of bread – a reference to Magritte
    An image about surrealist art, surrealism, diets, dieting

    Ref: a614

  • Rene Magritte cartoon parody

    Rene Magritte parody of the Son of Man

    Magritte pastiche
    Rene Magritte cartoon parody of The Son of Man (French: Le fils de l’homme)
    The image shows a banker with a coin in front of his face based on the Magritte image of a man with an apple in front of his face

    The idea behind this image is that bankers (and others in the finance industry) see only money and profit. This is implied by the coin that is floating in front of the face of the banker, blocking his perception of anything else but money

    A comment on finance, capitalism, priorities

    The £ sign on the coin can be changed to any other currency

    Ref a612

  • Illustration – unlock your imagination

    Cartoon - unlock your imagination!

    Cartoon featuring a person with a padlock as a head, jumping in the air and saying “Unlock your imagination!”
    An illustration about creativity

    An image for use in art education, classes or presentations on creativity

    The illustration is about freeing the imagination or liberating the mind to be creative, or on unleashing creativity. It is an image to convey the link between creativity and thought processes.
    The cartoon has uses as an illustration in art education or in areas of philosophy or psychology

    Click here for a more bizarre and surreal version of the same idea

    Date created: 2013
    Cartoon reference number: a604

  • A bad artist and a good artist – cartoon

    a bad artist and a good artist – cartoon

    Good art and bad art cartoon.

    The cartoon shows an artist who is not very talented and who produces second rate work.
    He thinks his work is really good though.
    This could be because he has little insight into his work and is unaware of its low quality.
    The other artist is very artistically astute and therefore is very critical of her own work and sees the shortcomings in it, even though it’s very good.

    Please note – this cartoon holds attitudes to art that I don’t necessarily hold myself!

    Cartoon drawn: 2019

    Cartoon reference number: art046
    This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
    See the book here.
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