| London cartoon museum opens Maev Kennedy --The Guardian February 20, 2006 |
Within 4,000 square feet of a new museum opening in London this week there's enough glorification, blasphemy,
character assassination, smut and innuendo to keep the courts busy for years.
London's first cartoon museum, with 3,000 books and 1,200 images, covers three centuries, from Georgian
Rowlandson watercolours of ancient bawds selling off country maids to wrinkled rakes, to scurrilous
suggestions so recent that the ink is barely dry, teasing out the tangled affairs of Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and
George Bush.
Within 4,000 square feet of a new museum opening in London this week there's enough glorification, blasphemy,
character assassination, smut and innuendo to keep the courts busy for years.
London's first cartoon museum, with 3,000 books and 1,200 images, covers three centuries, from Georgian
Rowlandson watercolours of ancient bawds selling off country maids to wrinkled rakes, to scurrilous
suggestions so recent that the ink is barely dry, teasing out the tangled affairs of Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and
George Bush.
The collection includes graphic novels, comics, posters and some of the most famous cartoons ever published,
including Captain Bruce Bairnsfather's image of two squaddies in a first world war trench, one muttering "If you
know a better 'ole, go to it." Three dimensional loans include a dotty golfing machine by Rowland Emett, and
Gerald Scarfe's Chairman Mao, half dictator, half crimson leather armchair.
The museum, which receives no public funding, is in Little Russell Street, near the British Museum, just round
the corner from where the caricaturist George Cruickshank was born - a site finally found after two years
hunting. It will be opened on Wednesday by the Duke of Edinburgh, who will find many friends on the walls,
including a gigantic Trog caricature of his wife, and opens to the public from Thursday.
character assassination, smut and innuendo to keep the courts busy for years.
London's first cartoon museum, with 3,000 books and 1,200 images, covers three centuries, from Georgian
Rowlandson watercolours of ancient bawds selling off country maids to wrinkled rakes, to scurrilous
suggestions so recent that the ink is barely dry, teasing out the tangled affairs of Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and
George Bush.
Within 4,000 square feet of a new museum opening in London this week there's enough glorification, blasphemy,
character assassination, smut and innuendo to keep the courts busy for years.
London's first cartoon museum, with 3,000 books and 1,200 images, covers three centuries, from Georgian
Rowlandson watercolours of ancient bawds selling off country maids to wrinkled rakes, to scurrilous
suggestions so recent that the ink is barely dry, teasing out the tangled affairs of Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and
George Bush.
The collection includes graphic novels, comics, posters and some of the most famous cartoons ever published,
including Captain Bruce Bairnsfather's image of two squaddies in a first world war trench, one muttering "If you
know a better 'ole, go to it." Three dimensional loans include a dotty golfing machine by Rowland Emett, and
Gerald Scarfe's Chairman Mao, half dictator, half crimson leather armchair.
The museum, which receives no public funding, is in Little Russell Street, near the British Museum, just round
the corner from where the caricaturist George Cruickshank was born - a site finally found after two years
hunting. It will be opened on Wednesday by the Duke of Edinburgh, who will find many friends on the walls,
including a gigantic Trog caricature of his wife, and opens to the public from Thursday.
| Cartoon Collection Gallery From the BBC |
| The Cartoon Museum Website |