“I think of them all as prats to start with and work from there” — veteran cartoonist Gerald Scarfe’s irreverent approach to politicians he lampoons is typical of a new show celebrating British humour in art.
“Rude Britannia: British Comic Art”, which opens at Tate Britain in London on Wednesday, traces the comic in British art from the 17th century to today.
Scarfe said political leaders from Napoleon to Churchill and Thatcher were fair game. “Those arrogant enough to set themselves up as our leaders are there to be questioned,” he told Reuters. “It’s great to be able to make a point, and it’s healthy too,” added Scarfe, who has been cartoonist at the Sunday Times for more than 40 years.
In Rude Britannia, Scarfe depicts a tiny Napoleon on a giant white horse and Thatcher as a prehistoric “Torydactyl”.
Scarfe dismissed Labour’s Gordon Brown as “dull, dour and difficult to depict”. He is now taking aim at Conservative PM David Cameron, whom he depicts wearing a bow tie and evening tails to underline his privileged background. “I always try and annoy them a little bit,” he said.
Another dominant figure in the exhibition is Hogarth, the 18th century artist and satirist who inspired others to lampoon the greed and depravity they felt went hand-in-hand during the age of industrialisation.