The exhibition 'Ronald Searle: An Artist's Life' was to officially open at the Wilhelm Busch Museum in Hanover last weekend to celebrate the centenary of Searle's birth (March 3). However, due to the Covid-19 lockdown measures I'm not sure if it happened (although Germany does seem to be relaxing lockdown measures).
'The »Ronald Searle Archive« located in the museum is therefore more than »just« an archive: It comprises the majority of Ronald Searle's eight decades of artistic oeuvre, his collection of historical caricatures, his specialist library and the actual archive with diaries and personal notes, project sketches, specimen copies and correspondence with fellow artists and publishers. It also contains historical artist correspondence such as that of the English cartoonist George Cruikshank (1792-1878).
This complex inventory makes it possible to work out and present a variety of connecting lines between the individual collections. The exhibition draws from the abundance of this archive with the aim of providing visitors with intensive insights into a complex artist's personality along central geographic anchor points from Singapore to England and Germany to tour tours in France and two themed islands on »Animation« and »Private Life« To tell contemporary history. Access to the museum's online collection gives an insight into the immediate work with Ronald Searle's estate.'
More info at the museum's website here
