In New York, a new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has visitors shaking with laughter.
Infinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine – the newest exhibition on at the gallery – displays the lighter side of artwork, and explores how works can convey a deeper, more sinister message through comedy.
“The show is about humour but it also has this deeper side,” said curator Nadine Orenstein. “Like we have the Daily Show or Satruday Night Live – it’s that shared political humour.”
Orenstein spent two years preparing the exhibition, carefully selecting works from artists all over the world and arranging them for visitors to enjoy.
The exhibition – selected from the museum’s staggering collection of 1.2 million drawings and prints – puts 162 pieces on display, chronicling how satire and sarcasm developed as an art from the 17th century right through to present day.
As visitors walk through the gallery, they can trace the origins of early caricatures and the influence these artists had on later works. The exhibition also reveals common jokes that have been told by satirists for hundreds of years, regardless of time or location.
Notable artists on display include Francisco Goya, Leonardo da Vinci and Eugene Delacriox alongside artists like James Gillray, Thomans Rowlandson and Davide Levine.
“In its purest form, caricature – from the Italian carico and caricare, “to load” and “to exaggerate” – distorts human physical characterstics that can be combined with various kinds of satire to convey personal, social, or political meaning,” an exhibition description said.
“Although caricature has probably existed since artists began to draw (ancient examples are known), the form took shape in Europe when Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings of grotesque heads were copied by followers and distributed as prints.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/04/uk-exhibition-caricature-idUSLNE7A305920111104
