Drawing Blood: Forty Five Years of Scarfe Uncensored

by Gerald Scarfe

Artist, stage designer, political cartoonist, and satirist, Gerald Scarfe has given us some of the most famous and controversial images of the 20th century. During a prolific career that spans more than four decades, he has worked with an eclectic mix of English and American icons: from Pink Floyd to Disney, Private Eye to Time, The Sunday Times to The New Yorker. This, the first collected volume of his work in more than 20 years, showcases the works that have established him as one of our foremost cultural commentators. From the whiplash satire of his political cartoons to his harrowing portraits of the Vietnam War, and from his spectacular set designs to his many contributions to films, this spectacular visual memoir offers an astute and irreverent view of the personalities and events that have shaped modern times.

Genres: Art

352 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2005

Reviews

[Dave Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lavishly illustrated chronological run-down of over forty years of Scarfe's work in political cartoons, theatrical set and costume design, and animation. Featuring heavily are his favourite victims Nixon and Thatcher, alongside many more figures from British, US and international politics, pop and film stars, and royalty. Particular vitriol is poured upon Ian Smith and Enoch Powell (for obvious reasons) - thus any reader will need a certain level of familiarity with their cultural/historical context since these figures of the sixties and seventies do seem an awfully long way away now. A number of pages are given over to the extensive work Scarfe did with Pink Floyd (both for the film The Wall and for various stage props and effects), and to his collaboration with Disney on their Hercules movie. After the introduction (detailing his childhood, artistic schooling, and liking for Ronald Searle - whose influence is obvious), text commentaries are fairly minimal, merely setting the scene for each new project. But it's the pictures that are the point of a book like this anyway.

Of course, the prudish should be warned (if they didn't know already) that Scarfe's style explores the most grotesque sides of life, from merely gross distortion of celebrities' features through to a gleeful scrabbling around in the sexual and the scatological, via depictions of the horrors of war, pollution and famine.

So be aware that while there are glorious colourful costume designs for stage adaptations (Fantastic Mr. Fox), opera (The Magic Flute) and ballet (The Nutcracker), there are also pictures of George W. Bush pooping out bombs, and Mary Whitehouse being rogered by Rupert Bear in front of the pope.

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm just the right age for all this to actually mean something. I started buying the Sunday Times at the same time that Scarfe started illustrating for it and I've grown up appreciating his acerbic yet spot-on comments on the political and social mess that the late twentieth-century thrust at us. The negroid Statue of Liberty setting America aflame, Lyndon Johnson shitting bombs on Vietnam, Wilson and MacMillan almost Punch-and-Judy in their behaviour. This is nitty gritty, pared to the bone political commentary... and the memories flood back.