Presidential Material
Gallery show highlights political cartooning
By Angela Wibking
Presidents of the 20th Century: Contemporary and Historic Political Cartoons
Through Jan. 8
Ruby Green Contemporary Arts Foundation
514 Fifth Ave. S.
Noon-6 p.m. Wed.-Sat.
Closing reception 5-8 p.m. Jan. 8, with a gallery talk by cartoonist Jim Larrick at 7 p.m.
For information, call 244-7179
As long as there have been politicians, there have been political cartoonists. Poking fun at elected officials’ foibles and—less frequently—praising their accomplishments, cartoonists can summarize an entire political career with a few strokes of black ink. Day in and day out, toiling mostly at city newspapers, these artists address both local and national figures and issues. Their most creative assaults, however, are aimed at the man at the top of America’s political ladder. Though Harry Truman once said of the office of president of the United States, “the buck stops here,” political cartoonists would say that’s where it begins.
Ruby Green’s exhibition of these cartoons seems a curious fit for a contemporary art gallery—until one discovers that gallery director Chris Campbell, herself an artist, is the daughter of Sandy Campbell, political cartoonist for The Tennessean. Chris’ father curated the show, using pieces of his own and ones from his collection of vintage cartoons, as well as works contributed by friends and colleagues in the cartoon field from around the country. The result is an entertaining overview of presidential politics from the first 20th-century president, William McKinley, to the last, Bill Clinton; the show features work by more than 50 cartoonists, 10 of whom are Pulitzer Prize winners.
Arranged in chronological order beginning with McKinley’s term of office (1897-1901), the show is jam-packed with 132 images. Some of the political issues lampooned in the early cartoons will challenge the viewer’s knowledge of American history, but such knowledge isn’t necessary to understand what side of the issues the cartoonist and his newspaper are on. In one 1919 cartoon by Frederick Burr Opper of The New York Tribune, for example, Woodrow Wilson is depicted diving headlong into a thorn bush labeled “League of Nations”; in the next panel, disheveled and covered with brambles, he’s shown trying to convince a figure representing the world community to join him in diving back into the hazardous bush. Even if the League of Nations is a mystery to some viewers, the cartoon leaves no doubt that Opper and the Tribune were firmly opposed to the controversial predecessor to the United Nations.
On the other hand, the sympathies of Herc Ficklen and The Dallas Morning News seem to be with Harry Truman in a 1949 cartoon that shows the president in lumberjack gear trying to break up a log jam labeled “Controversial Bills” that’s choking a river called “Congress.” The relevancy of the cartoon 50 years later illustrates the often disappointing lack of progress made in the process of government during this century. Other politics-as-usual similarities pop up all over the gallery walls as the viewer makes his or her way through the 18 presidencies represented.
Budget battles and tax breaks are perennially popular targets, for example. A 1965 cartoon by Art Bimrose of The Oregonian shows Lyndon Johnson as a tailor trying to fit a slender budgetary suit of clothing to a man of considerable girth labeled “Great Society Programs.” In a 1981 Bob Taylor cartoon for The Dallas Times-Herald, Ronald Reagan is depicted as Santa Claus delivering a bag of “Tax Cuts for the Rich” down one chimney while merrily assuring the poor family next door that Santa will “be right over as soon as you can afford a chimney.” Again, even if you were a babe during Johnson’s war on poverty or the years of trickle-down Reaganomics, it’s clear where these cartoonists and their newspapers stand on those issues.
Issues aside, though, the show offers a fascinating look at the evolution of political cartooning style. The early cartoons are much more detailed in both text and images; the more contemporary cartoons send their message in broad strokes and a few pointed words. The approach to depicting the president changes radically over the years, as well. The early cartoons take a more realistic look, and even when lambasting the president and his policies, there’s a sense of restraint. The more modern cartoonists zoom in on a president’s most vulnerable physical features and exaggerate them to the point of extreme (and some would say cruel) caricature. LBJ becomes a human basset hound, Nixon a shifty-eyed crook with a 5 o’clock shadow, and Carter a thick-lipped dreamer with a dazed-and-confused look in his eyes. The toothy grin of Teddy Roosevelt and even the perpetually frowning face of Calvin Coolidge seem loving portraits by comparison.
Viewers will also notice that more than a few of the pre-LBJ-era cartoons actually depict presidents in a positive light. Tom Little’s 1945 Nashville Tennessean cartoon of Franklin D. Roosevelt, for example, shows the president as a courageous sea captain guiding his ship of state through a terrible storm. (Little reworks the same image in 1963 with Kennedy at the ship’s wheel.) About the closest thing to a positive cartoon among those of the post-LBJ years is a 1994 Cincinnati Post drawing by Jeff Stahler showing the recently deceased Nixon engaging in a break-in—of the pearly gates.
Still, as sour as the modern political process has become, these political cartoonists maintain their sense of humor about it—and help the American people do the same. In their own way, the cartoonists are part of the process itself, influencing how voters look at politicians and issues. It’s an influence not to be taken lightly. After all, it’s hard to ignore—or vote for—something that makes you laugh.
Still, as sour as the modern political process has become, these political cartoonists maintain their sense of humor about it—and help the American people do the same. In their own way, the cartoonists are part of the process itself, influencing how voters look at politicians and issues. It’s an influence not to be taken lightly. After all, it’s hard to ignore—or vote for—something that makes you laugh.
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