Chris Madden Cartoons

A searchable archive for licensing

Chess cartoon. Each side playing with a mixture of black and white chess pieces

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chess cartoon

A cartoon about chess in which the black and white chess pieces are mixed.

In the layout of the chess board depicted the black and white chess pieces don’t occupy opposite ends of the board, but are mixed equally at each end.

The mixing of the black and white chess pieces symbolises the mixing of different types of people (not necessarily linked to race) rather than the polarising effect of each colour of piece congregating at one end.
As a result of the mixing of the pieces, with each ‘side’ in the chess game being made up of the two colours, it’s impossible for the two sides to engage in ‘battle’.

Drawn: December 2020
Cartoon reference number: a881

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

The shifting definition of ‘white supremacy’ – cartoon

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White supremacy cartoon

A cartoon about the changing definition of ‘white supremacy’

In recent months I’ve noticed what I think is a migration in the meaning of the term ‘white supremacy’.

To me the term has always implied the conscious policy of domination by white people over other people and the implicit superiority of white people over other people.
Under this definition a white supremacist would typically be depicted as a fascist or a member of the KKK, as in the cartoon.
Recently I’ve noticed several commentators on race issues stating that the western world is a ‘white supremacist society’. This society is indeed white dominated, but that doesn’t make it supremacist in the KK/fascist sense.
I think that a danger of using the term to describe contemporary society is that it can be interpreted as labelling all white people as conscious co-conspirators in the oppression of ethnic minority people, thus potentially making all white people ‘enemies’. I believe that quite a few would rather be described as allies.
Drawn: August 2020
Cartoon reference number: a842b

Philip Guston kkk controversy – art gallery self-censorship cartoon

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Guston kkk censorship controversy cartoon

Philip Guston kkk paintings in gallery self-censorship controversy.

The cartoon depicts Guston’s Klansman paintings being removed from an exhibition.

A cartoon about the controversy over the proposed postponement of a Philip Guston exhibition containing some of his Ku Klux Klan paintings. The exhibition was set to be staged in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
The decision to postpone the exhibition due to the current social climate is interpreted by some as being an act of self-censorship.
Drawn: 4th October 2020
Cartoon reference number: a856

Decolonising the National Trust cartoon

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stately homes links to slavery cartoon

Stately homes and their links to slavery cartoon.
Decolonisation of the National Trust.

At the present moment (2020) the subject of racism and slavery is very high on the cultural/political agenda of some sections of society, as evidenced by the rise of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
Large sections of the establishment cultural landscape are being reanalysed in the light of race, slavery and colonialisation.

This cartoon is about the fact that recently the National Trust (the custodian of many stately homes in Britain) has started to redisplay the contents of some of its properties in the light of historical links to slavery, coupled with the news that the trust is thinking of concentrating its future efforts on its work that isn’t linked to historical buildings (The National Trust was partly created specifically to care for these buildings).
The cartoon shows a scenario in which stately homes are actually destroyed because of their links to slavery (links which may or may not be quite tenuous or may have been quite normal for the times), much in the way that parts of the contemporary anti-racist movement has toppled statues of establishment figures who had links to slavery.
Will future generations thank them, or will it be viewed as a form of vandalistic iconoclasm?
Drawn: September 2020
Cartoon reference number: a850

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.

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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