Mini exhibition tribute

The Works on Paper Fair will feature a handful of original Searles on loan from the Cartoon Museum.  It's always worth seeing Searle's work up close and they have one of my favourites -

'Honolulu' 1965 Holiday Magazine

Cartoon Museum collection © Copyright the estate of Ronald Searle
and the Sayle Literary Agency.

To be exhibited as part of a Ronald Searle tribute exhibition at the Watercolours + Works on Paper Fair 2 - 5 February 2012, at the Science Museum London. (Thanks to Richerd Hodgson)

POW days

Several remarkable resources have recently become available giving insight into Searle's Army days and his incarceration as a POW.
Britain At War has this article with links to some of Searle's POW sketches. Returning from the war in 1945 Searle was profiled in Reynolds News and Sunday Citizen.





The Imperial War Museum, London has dozens of drawings viewable online here.  It seems the entire sketchbook of Searle's convoluted passage to the Far East is included on the IWM website.  It illuminates daily life during a prolonged voyage across the Atlantic from Scotland to Halifax, down to South America, around Africa en route to Singapore.

It's remarkable to see in these drawings all the tics and visual cues that would later become indicative of Searle's mature style. The combination of mark-making; scratchy lines and smudging anchored by bold outlines; graphic stylisation of facial features, long limbed figures, architectural studies with character, tonal shading on ONE side of a figure etc.

Contributor Kevin O'Brien sent in this shot he took in the IWM of Searle's prison camp drawing kit.

The Victoria State Library, Australia has put online the Lofty Cannon Collection.  The Aussie POW was a great friend to Searle at his lowest ebb in the prison camp and he features in several of these drawings given to him after the war.

Whilst incarcerated in Changi the prisoners kept their spirits up and their minds occupied by putting on shows to which Searle contributed sets. Des Bettany (portrayed here by Searle) was a fellow artistically inclined inmate who collaborated with Searle.  See their elaborate programmes and read further at a website devoted to his POW artwork here.

Sonia Kretschmar writes about 'The Survivor' the magazine Searle conributed to with a "print order of five and a readership of fifty thousand" in Changi prison. She has posted scans from the Royal College of Art's ARK magazine with an article on Searle the survivor.  See it here

Chris Beetles Gallery, London exhibited this poster for a Changi production of Shaw's 'Pygmalion'.

Inscribed 'completed for Ronald Pantling 18 years after all this!' retrospectively dated 1963.  Further signed by members of the cast and production team.

(Executed in Changi Gaol 1945 on reverse of a list of prisoners of war.)

This is Gloucestershire reports on Syd Tavender, a fellow former POW of Searle's.

'The pair met when working in the gardens of Singapore, Mr Tavender said, and were in terrible physical shape after enduring horrific conditions when forced to work on the Burma to Thailand railway.

Mr Tavender, who lives in Up Hatherley, said: "When we were working the gardens, having come down from Burma, we were wrecks. We were just skin and bone.

"He was still drawing then. I knew him reasonably well. I used to talk to him when we were doing the gardening. . . "

The Churchill College 2010 newsletter magazine carried this article on Canon Noel Duckworth- a much respected figure amongst the inmates of Changi.

The article quotes a letter from Searle and publishes a drawing of Duckworth by Searle, signed by other POWs.

Further reading :

Changi Gaol Part 1

Changi Gaol Part 2

Changi Gaol Part 3 
POW

Call for entries

I've recently had some very interesting contributions from readers and in the wake of Mr Searle's death the site has seen increased traffic which may throw up more rarities.  Contributions are always welcome so if anyone out there has any rare Searle-iana that they think would add to this site please contact me at the email address in my Blogger profile.  The Private Collections section has contributions from several readers already.

Before Christmas Yak El-Droubie contacted me with some terrific shots taken by Douglas Webb during the production of Wendy Toye's 'The King's Breakfast'. I've added them to the 'King's Breakfast' section

Nicholas S. sent in a very lovely example of early Searle, circa 1947, originally made for an autograph hunter. It shows the artist portrayed by one of his darling schoolgirl creations.

In this drawing from the fifties the artist gets his own back on his diabolical creations.

(From the CartoonBooks Club)





Also if there are any cartoonists who would like to contribute tribute drawings I'd be happy to feature them here on the Hommage section of Perpetua.  My cartoonist pals Elliot Elam and Elliot Cowan have already posted their versions of that naughty schoolboy Molesworth on their respective blogs.

Elliot Elam

Elliot Cowan


Caricaturist extraordinaire Jonathan Cusick has made this lovely portrait

Hullo clouds, hullo sky. . .

Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian

The inevitable day has come-I'm deeply saddened to report the death of Ronald Searle.  He passed away peacefully in his sleep on Friday 30th December, 2011.  Since the death last summer of his wife Monica, his health declined and now Mr and Mrs Mole are together again.
It was a joy and a privilege to have known the Searles-I'll write a full tribute soon . . .


The media have some touching tributes:
Brad Holland
Making Great Illustration
Le Monde
The Economist
Deja View
Scotiana
Ragged Claws
Financial Times
The Lancet
MATT in the Telegraph
Quentin Blake
Padraig Rooney
Cambridge News
Spectator
Comics Journal
The Last Word
ECC
Sonia Kretschmar
Steven Heller
ZMKC
The Australian
New Yorker
ArtScene
Daily Beast
Bridget Strevens-Marzo
Brian Sibley
AOI
Creative Review
New Humanist
Eye Magazine
The Independent Obituary
Spitalfields Life
The mermaid and the schoolgirl
Radio Times
Richard  Thompson
NY Times
John Coulthart
The Sun
Channel 4 News Report
Searle's biographer Russell Davies
Searle's biographer Russell Davies
Harry Mount in the Daily Mail
Gerald Scarfe
Steve Bell on The World.org
Ralph Steadman & Posy Simmonds on Front Row
The Telegraph
Harry Mount in  The Telegraph
Telegraph obituary
Guardian Books
Guardian obituary
The Mirror
Daily Mail
Berliner Morgenpost
BBC obituary
Martin Rowson
Cartoon Brew
Michael Greenwood's best meal ever!
Michael Greenwood in the Mirror
The Independent
The Express

Justin Creedy Smith, akg-images / Newscom

©Louis Monier:Rue des ArchivesMarch99

©Louis Monier

From a comment in the Guardian:

Glynyfran

4 January 2012 10:01AM

"Let me add a personal story to all these tributes. In 1956 my wife and I attended the Ideal Home Exhibition, and Ronald Searle was there sitting and drawing cartoons of whatever was going on. I naively asked him how he gained his inspirations, he turned to me and said, 'just look around you'. I've never forgotten that remark, or the valuable advice it proved to be in my own life. 

We all owe him a debt of gratitude for the pleasure he gave to so many people, pleasure that will outlast his life here as we continue to enjoy his many creations."

Christmas Update

Stephen Nadler blogs about a piece of personal Searle art here
Searle fans in L.A. should see the Searle retrospective exhibition at Gallery Nucleus through January 29th.  I've updated the following sections:
New Yorker Covers
Book covers
Lemon Hart Rum
Toujours Provence
New Yorker Editorial
Theatre Design

Ronald Searle is profiled in Making Great Illustration, a collection of interviews with todays' top illustrators featuring amongst others Ralph Steadman, Quentin Blake, Dave McKean and Pete Fowler.
A perfect Christmas gift for illustration fans-buy it on Amazon.

Last year Searle contributed to the 'Inspired by Soanes' exhibition at the Sir John Soanes Museum, London. See all the artwork here

What Book?

... ARE YOU READING NOW?

I am reading What Am I Still Doing Here? by Roger Lewis.

This is not because I designed the jacket (without seeing any text), but because it is a wild saga of witty, thought-provoking, intelligent ramblings - and it's frequently spendidly vulgar to boot.

... WOULD YOU TAKE TO A DESERT ISLAND?

I would take Jenny Uglow's extraordinarily fascinating biography William Hogarth: A Life And A World. It took me over a year to read it the first time. I'd happily enjoy repeating that, and then get off the island, thanks very much.

... GAVE YOU THE READING BUG?

In the English classes of our small elementatary school, we were read Dickens. I was about 12 and totally bowled over by his visions and imagination.

So I would cycle off to the local town lending library, stuff my bicyle basket with the rest of Dickens and wallow.

And I've never regretted it.

... LEFT YOU COLD?

I can't say that I have read - knowingly - a book that left me cold. But, if I may twist the question, I recently bought a book that freezes to the bone. The Eichmann Trial by Deborah Lipstadt.

I attended that trial and spent a month in the courtroom regarding the man to whom a few millions of killings during World War II were but figures in his notebook.

From The Daily Mail

Graphis

International design journal Graphis magazine featured Searle's work on several occasions over the years.

Its first feature on Searle profiled the artist in 1948 with this lavish 6 page spread.  Exposure such as this must have helped Searle establish his reputation in the years after WWII.

 Wonderfully loose St. Trinians sketch on the right.

(Courtesy of Full Table.com)

In 1958 issue 80 printed an 11 page spread on Searle and his work

In 1980 issue 212 profiled Searle again with text by Dr. Alexander Duckers

In 1969 the magazine invited prominent graphic artists and illustrators to celebrate its 25th anniversary.  Gene Gable looks back at that issue at Creative Pro.com

Searle contributed several spectacular covers:

Issue 80 A frightening Picassoesque female artist

Issue 129 (1967) Stuck for an idea Searle creates a cover from the very problem of 'artists' block'!

Issue 169