Chris Madden Cartoons

A searchable archive for licensing

Child drawing – art education cartoon

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children's drawings cartoon

Art education cartoon

A cartoon showing a child drawing.

The child is drawing very well, but the teacher is encouraging her to draw in a more childish way. A cartoon about the holding back of talent.
First version drawn: 2006
Cartoon reference number: a155b

Bowdlerisation cartoon

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bowdlerisation cartoon

Bowdlerisation cartoon

A cartoon about bowdlerisation – the rewriting of text to remove material that is considered offensive or objectionable, especially when directed at children.

Bowdlerisation is named after Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), who published an expurgated edition of Shakespeare.
Cartoon drawn: Jan 2012
Cartoon reference number: a927

Eton public school and its traditions cartoon

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Eton tradition cartoon

Modernising Eton cartoon.

A cartoon about attempts to modernise the attitudes at Eton College by the current head master, Simon Henderson,
His resolve has led to the sacking of Eton master Will Knowland on the grounds that a lecture that he prepared on the subject of patriarchy was deemed to be objectionable.

Part of the irony of the situation is that Eton is a hugely influential boys-only school steeped in out-dated tradition. If any part of the British education system can be accused of promoting the patriarchy this is it.
A cartoon about patriarchy, tradition, misogyny, free speech, progressive views and political correctness.
Drawn: Dec 2020
Cartoon reference number: a884

Eton sacking cartoon

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Eton cartoon

Eton sacking cartoon.

A cartoon about the modernising of the attitudes at Eton College, which has led to the sacking of Eton master Will Knowland following a lecture that he prepared about patriarchy and related subjects which was deemed to be objectionable.

The current head master of Eton is Simon Henderson, who has resolved to make the attitudes within the school more in line with current trends.
Part of the irony of the situation is that Eton is a hugely influential boys-only school. If any part of the British education system can be accused of promoting the patriarchy this is it.
A cartoon about patriarchy, tradition, misogyny, free speech, progressive views and political correctness.
Drawn: Dec 2020
Cartoon reference number: a883

Ethnic diversity cartoon

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ethnic diversity cartoon

Diversity and inclusion cartoon.

The cartoon shows a lecture about the desirability of ethnic diversity. Almost the whole audience is white.

The inspiration for this cartoon came from the phrase that performers at some events use when describing the audience as ‘a sea of white faces’.
Of course the audience at some events may be predominantly white because that reflects the ethnic mix of the locality or because of the differing interests of different ethnic and cultural groups, however sometimes it is a result of issues around discrimination concerning opportunities and access, as is implied in this cartoon.
A cartoon about race, racism, bame issues, discrimination, unconscious discrimination, cultural discrimination, racial bias.
Drawn: 8th Sept 2020
Cartoon reference number: a843

Donald Trump schoolboy cartoon

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Donald Trump schoolboy cartoon

The danger of the expression “You can be whoever you want to be”.

The cartoon shows Donald Trump in his school days listening to the expression. Maybe getting a few ideas.

In the USA the aspirational expression that anyone can become president of the United States has proved to be true, unfortunately.

Drawn: August 2020
Cartoon reference number: a840

Code switching cartoon – from working class to a class at Oxbridge

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working class code switching cartoon

Code switching cartoon.

A cartoon about the concept of code switching.

The current usage of the term code switching refers to the action of people changing their behaviour when they are in different cultural settings, usually in order to blend in. In this sense it is most often used with reference to ethnic minority people who are interacting in predominantly white social groups.
The cartoon illustrates a relatively less well remarked upon example of code switching, which is when white working class people need to blend in with white people from higher social classes, here exemplified by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In education the working classes tend to have lower attainment levels than other classes as a result of social discrimination.

Drawn: August 2020
Cartoon reference number: a836

You can be whoever you want to be – cartoon

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You can be whoever you want to be – cartoon

A flaw in the aspirational concept of “You can be whoever you want to be”.

The cartoon illustrates a problem with the currently popular encouragement to schoolchildren that when they grow up they can be whoever they want to be.
The aspirational, motivational expression makes the assumption that everyone will strive for a worthy goal. I don’t think this is necessarily the case.
In fact the concept gives people license to aim towards whatever they desire, which wouldn’t be a good thing.

Drawn: August 2020
Cartoon reference number: a835

Art education cartoon

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Art education cartoon

Artistic validity within the zeitgeist

The cartoon shows an art college student creating an artwork.
The tutor is criticising the work because the student is artistically independent minded and the art she is creating doesn’t adhere to the artistic principles that he or the college believe in.
He is saying “You can’t just go off on some crazy idea of your own.”
It is a cartoon about the fact that the wrong art education can stifle a person’s artistic vision rather than expand and encourage it. It is about the role of art educators.
You may notice that the art that the student is creating is in a style that is currently seen in contemporary art galleries. This means that either the cartoon is set in the past before this type of art was adopted (and thus the student was very much justified in going off in her own direction) or the art college is a bit more conservative than it thinks it is.

Cartoon drawn: 2019
Cartoon reference number: art096
This cartoon features in my book of cartoons about art.
See the book here.
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Critical race theory and science in universities – cartoon

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culture wars cartoon universities race and science

Culture wars cartoon – race and science in universities.

Update:

I drew this cartoon in 2020. At the time I thought that the idea that CRT could be applied to scientific subjects such as mathematics or cosmology was so outlandish that a cartoon that suggested such a thing would be funny due to its sheer absurdity. It’s started to happen.

––––––––––––––––––––

Culture wars are raging in universities and academic institutions across the western world. They are raging elsewhere too, but the culture wars in, say, the Islamic world, are different to the ones in the west.
The west’s culture wars often circle around subjects such as race and gender and identity politics that exist within the ‘woke’ analysis of culture.

At the time of drawing this cartoon the subject of race is very much to the fore, with movements such as BLM (Black Lives Matter) having a very high profile.
In academia many subjects in the social sciences are currently analysed through the perspective of critical race theory (CRT).
This cartoon illustrates a tendency to apply critical race theory to subjects where it has no relevance or where its relevance is overstated.
Drawn: September 2020
Cartoon reference number: a849

The outcome of multiple conditions on opportunity – intersectionality illustration

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intersectionality cartoon

The outcome of multiple life conditions on opportunity and outcome – intersectionality cartoon

This illustration was drawn for Marxism Today magazine in the mid 1980s.
It features a machine into which babies enter at the top and adults leave at the bottom.
The machine represents the workings of society, with tubes and pipes representing functions such as education, class, race, gender etc.
The adults leaving the machine have all been filtered through the various parts of the machine to produce different types of people. The types of people are produced to suit the conditions and needs of society.
The illustration could be interpreted as being about what is now called intersectionality (although it was drawn in about 1984 or 1985, before the term intersectionality was coined in 1989 by professor Kimberlé Crenshaw).

Drawn: mid 1980s
Cartoon reference number: a845
intersectionality cartoon

A detail of the illustration

Women in science

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women in science - cartoon

A cartoon about women in science and their relationship with the media.

A cartoon about one of the problems that confront women in the workplace.

This is an example of my cartoon strip published in Chemistry World, the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry, round 2014 – 2015.
Cartoon reference number: a724

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Museums and art galleries removing art and exhibits due to student grievance – cartoon

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student protest cartoon

A cartoon about hypercritical student attitudes demanding the removal (deaccessioning) of artworks from galleries.

A cartoon about woke culture and the trend for students’ grievances and dissatisfactions to be translated into action, such as in the form no platforming or the demands for statues of out-of-favour people to be removed.

The action is often seen by some as self-righteous, self-indulgent, censorious and intolerant (ironically, as the students often think that they are acting for the greater benefit of others).
The cartoon shows the danger of the students adopting a feeling of over-entitlement and thus taking their attitudes out into the wider world beyond their colleges.
The inspiration for this image was a news story about students disapproving of a sculpture by Henry Moore, and demanding that it wasn’t displayed on their university campus.

The cartoon was drawn in 2016, but it seems even more relevant in 2020 with the woke culture on the ascendency. There are lots of statue removing campaigns going on at the moment (August, 2020) and there’s a bit of a campaign to have a mural by Rex Whistler in Tate Britain removed because a detail of it depicts a black person in chains.
In 2018 a painting, Hylas and the Nymphs by J W Waterhouse, was removed temporarily from Manchester Art Gallery as part of an art event by Sonia Boyce as a comment on what some people view as inappropriate art for the modern age.

Drawn: 2016

Cartoon reference: a734
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No Platforming cartoon

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Cartoon - no platforming debates

“No platforming” – the movement to deny a debating voice to speakers who’s views may be offensive to some of the audience.

This cartoon is about the phenomenon of denying a platform in debates for speakers who’s views may be found offensive by some of the audience.
The phenomenon is particularly prevalent in universities.

“No platforming” can be seen as a form of censorship masquerading as a virtue. It is built on the premise that people have the right not to be offended.
This may be a worthy aim, but it’s very much open to abuse, as the ‘right not to be offended’ can easily become a means of stifling debate.
Apart from anything else, the airing of controversial views are crucial to the health of democracy.

Cartoon drawn: 2015

Cartoon reference: a705
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Modern metaphors: 3D printing metaphor used to explain how babies grow

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facts of life babies grow like 3d printing

Facts of life cartoon: babies grow like 3D printing

This cartoon, of a pregnant mother explaining the facts of life to her young child, illustrates the use of metaphors for contemporary technological processes. The idea is that young children are more likely to understand modern metaphors than older ones.

A cartoon about the facts of life, where babies come from, the birds and the bees, 3D printing technology.
Cartoon reference number: a730

Illustration: unlock your creativity: unlock your mind

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Padlock as head - unlocking it releases the imagination

Bizarre cartoon featuring a padlock as a person’s head or an imaginary creature’s head
An illustration about unlocking creativity

A bizarre or surrealist image showing a person or imaginary creature with a head in the form of a padlock.
The person is holding a key and is saying “Unlock your imagination!”.

The illustration is about freeing the imagination or liberating the mind to be creative. 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.
For a less bizarre, more child-friendly version of the same concept click here
Cartoon reference number: a603

League tables cartoon

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league table cartoon

League tables cartoon
A government department creating a league table of league tables

A cartoon about society’s obsession with league tables.

League tables exist in education, with school league tables, hospitals and more
Cartoon reference number: a532
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Cartoon. Holy books v factual books

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knowledge from holy books - cartoon

Cartoon – knowledge from holy books
The difference between religious books and scientific and factual books

A cartoon showing a child reading from a pile of books – and another child reading from only one holy or religious book

This cartoon illustrated the way that some religious groups think that all necessary knowledge can be found in their holy book.
It illustrates the sort of argument put forward by people such as Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion or Christopher Hitchens in God is not Great
Cartoon reference number: a498

Exam results cartoon – the hugging students tendency

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exam result hugging - cartoon

Students hugging when they get their exam results

A cartoon about the recent trend in television news coverage of exam results for students to be filmed hugging each other when they get their grades.

The caption of this cartoon reads:
“I see that on your application form you’ve put down that your main reason for wanting to join our A level course is ‘To get hugs from teenage girls when the results come out’.”

The cartoon shows a man of dubious character applying to join a college of further education A-level course so that he can get hugs from attractive young female students when the exam results come out.

Cartoon drawn: 2012
Cartoon reference number: ed204

Questioning authority – illustration

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questioning authority cartoon

Questioning authority – cartoon.
A student questioning the authority of a lecturer

Cartoon showing a lecture on politics authority

A joke about authority, questioning, totalitarianism, anarchy, anarchism, authority figures

The joke is that the student is questioning the authority of a lecturer who is telling the audience to question authority.
This illustration first appeared in BBC Knowledge magazine.

Cartoon reference number: a332

Cartoon about children’s art and child development

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Children's art cartoon - talented child drawing mummy

Cartoon about children’s art and children’s artistic development

Cartoon showing small children in a nursery class practicing drawing and painting (or colouring-in).
The teacher is helping the children to learn how to draw and paint.

The teacher is saying to a child:
“That’s a lovely drawing, Sophie. Now let’s do another one with Mummy’s head like a great big balloon.”
The cartoon is about child development and children’s artistic development. It is also about adults’ expectations of what children should achieve and about educational methods and standards.
The child in the cartoon is obviously very talented, drawing a very sophisticated likeness of a person (her mother), however the teacher is being very prescriptive in her teaching methods and is encouraging the child to conform to the lower expectations of the standard that children of her age normally attain – in other words drawing a stick person with a big round head.
Cartoon reference number: a155
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Philosophy Cartoon

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Existentialism - philosophy cartoons

Existentialist philosophy cartoon: a child’s introduction to existentialism

A philosophy cartoon showing a child reading a book titled “My First Book of Existentialism”.
The philosophical theory of existentialism is usually associated with Jean Paul Sartre.

The humour in the illustration is that an elementary book at the level illustrated in the cartoon is far too basic to explain the theory underlying existentialism (or any other philosophical theory for that matter).
The cartoon also hints at the possibility that some philosophical concepts are more basic than is sometimes thought – and that some philosophies are probably flawed due to fundamental errors due to the limitations of the human brain to grasp concepts.
A cartoon about philosophy, existentialism, existentialist philosophy, philosophical theory.
Cartoon reference number: a131

See my book about life, the universe and everything.

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Child development cartoon. How to bring up the perfect child

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Cartoon - book on how to raise the perfect child

Cartoon showing an ambitious mother reading a book about how to raise the perfect child

Child development cartoon. An ambitious mother reading a book on child rearing called ‘How to Bring up the Perfect Child‘. The mother is saying to her child ‘Not now dear, I’m busy.’

A cartoon about child rearing, parenting skills, hothousing, developmental psychology, education, educational psychology, yummy mummy, yummy mummies, misdirected ambition, bad parenting.
Cartoon reference number: a085
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Cartoon. Educational books for children: ‘ The Bumper Book of Wonder’ & ‘My First Book of Disillusionment’

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cartoon - my first book of disillusionment

Cartoon showing an eager child reading a book titled ‘The Bumper Book of Wonder’. Near the child is a book that will be read in the future, called ‘My First Book of Disillusionment’

Child development cartoon showing an eager child reading a book titled ‘The Bumper Book of Wonder’. Near the child is a book he will read in the future, called ‘My First Book of Disillusionment’

A cartoon about growing up and loss of innocence, acquisition of knowledge, epistomology, epistemology.
Cartoon reference number: a084
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Punctuation mistakes – the grocer’s apostrophe cartoon

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language cartoon grocers apostrophe

A cartoon about mistakes in punctuation use. The so-called “grocer’s apostrophe” being use in a press article (as proof of the perceived degeneration of grammar in contemporary society)

The cartoon deals with a topic that is discussed in the book “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” by Lynne Truss.

A cartoon about linguistics, language, misuse of grammar, grammatical errors, punctuation mistakes.
Cartoon reference number: a061
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Learning curve illustration. The decline of educational standards & dumbing down

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Learning curve cartoon

Education cartoon
Learning curve illustration

A bookshelf representing a learning curve. The learning curve/shelf is curving downwards due to falling educational standards. The books on the curve are falling off the end due to the downward curve.

The illustration is dealing with lowering standards in schools, colleges and universities, library closures, dumbing down, knowledge acquisition.
Drawn: 2011
Cartoon reference number: edu001
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Illustration – unlock your imagination

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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