Cartoons and caricature in contemporary art

Cartoon and caricature in contemporary art brought together works that refer in a satirical or ironic fashion to cartoon characters from children's television, comic books and fairytales. The works in this exhibition demonstrate the various ways the popular art of caricature is manifest in contemporary art.

In the twentieth century, the idea of kidnapping graphic images from comics, cartoons and advertising and making the stolen images the basis of a new work of art is associated with Pop artists Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Both artists borrowed images from popular culture, and used, or mimicked, techniques associated with the cheaper production values of commercial art and the mass media. These strategies called into question the distinctions between high and low forms of culture promulgated by Modernist artists and theorists.

Cartoons and caricature in contemporary art toured to Hamilton Art Gallery, Waverley City Gallery, Gippsland Art Gallery, Mornington Peninsula Art Gallery and Latrobe Regional Gallery.