Ronald Searle Exhibit at Paramus Library
By Donna Perkosky Monday, November 13, 2006, 10:34 AM EST
An exhibit of Ronald Searle magazine and book covers is on display at the Paramus Public Library in November. Famous in the United States and England for his blackly humorous drawings of animals and people, Searle is known for a highly individualized style that combines conventional two-dimensional drawing with a peculiarly British attention to the “bric-a-brac†of social life.
Of Ronald Searle’s work, Tom Wolfe said in the New York Times Book Review, “The contradiction between the simplicity of the line and the clutter of the content tends to make even the most pointless Searle drawing funny.†This display case exhibit is made possible thanks to the generosity of John O’Brien, a local book collector.
The exhibit includes such titles as The St. Trinian’s Story, A Christmas Carol, Merry England, The Big Fat Cat Book, and More Cats, as well as many New Yorker covers. Another one of the books on display, To The Kwai—and Back: War Drawings 1939-1945, contains sketches from one of the most significant period of Searle’s life when he was in a Japanese prison camp during World War II. He drew in secret there, sometimes with burnt matches and other improvised material, hiding the drawings under the mattresses of fellow prisoners.
The Paramus Public Library is honored to exhibit of this fascinating and seminal cartoon artist, whose works have influenced a generation of cartoonists. In critic Malcolm Muggeridge’s opinion, Ronald Searle expresses a wit which “moves far beyond the field of the merely funny….Like all artists, particularly humorous ones, he is basically anarchistic. Beneath the skin he sees the skull.â€
For more information, please call 201/599-1300.
Of Ronald Searle’s work, Tom Wolfe said in the New York Times Book Review, “The contradiction between the simplicity of the line and the clutter of the content tends to make even the most pointless Searle drawing funny.†This display case exhibit is made possible thanks to the generosity of John O’Brien, a local book collector.
The exhibit includes such titles as The St. Trinian’s Story, A Christmas Carol, Merry England, The Big Fat Cat Book, and More Cats, as well as many New Yorker covers. Another one of the books on display, To The Kwai—and Back: War Drawings 1939-1945, contains sketches from one of the most significant period of Searle’s life when he was in a Japanese prison camp during World War II. He drew in secret there, sometimes with burnt matches and other improvised material, hiding the drawings under the mattresses of fellow prisoners.
The Paramus Public Library is honored to exhibit of this fascinating and seminal cartoon artist, whose works have influenced a generation of cartoonists. In critic Malcolm Muggeridge’s opinion, Ronald Searle expresses a wit which “moves far beyond the field of the merely funny….Like all artists, particularly humorous ones, he is basically anarchistic. Beneath the skin he sees the skull.â€
For more information, please call 201/599-1300.
