Cartoonists & the PRB

This is Peter Duggan's cartoon review of the Pre-Raphaelite exhibit, published in the Guardian Online edition on 3 October 2012. The glancing reference to the "YBAs" in the second panel is a direct rebuke to the curators' claims that the PRB constituted a genuine avant-garde. Duggan obviously thinks that Damien Hirst, Tracy Emin, and the rest of the young stars in British art who made a splash in the 1990s--Charles Saatchi's YBAs--were no less or no more avant-garde than the PRB. In other words, neither movement represents a true avant-garde.

Take a few minutes to look through Raine Szramski's wonderful work at Pre-Raphernalia.

The drawing on the left is one of my favorites. The lettering reminds me of Raymond Pettibon's work. Look at how "Illness" and "Millais" have the same line weight.
 
See also her merchandise line if you want a Ned and Topsy T-Shirt or a Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood water bottle.

Peter Duggan and Raine Szramski are doing distinctly different things with their work, so it's not really fair to compare them.

Edward Burne-Jones loved sketching and cartooning. One of the most indelible images in either of the current PRB shows at the NGA is Burne-Jones's sketchbook with the amazing drawing of a perfectly round William Morris in the "Pre-Raphaelites and the Book" exhibition in the Library Gallery. Here's a great Burne-Jones' cartoon to end this post, (below)  a reflection on the nature of being an artist.