Public Conscience: Selected Cartoons 1897–1925

This exhibition is now closed

This exhibition will be mounted to run concurrently with Trace Hodgson and will include drawings by a number of cartoonists who appeared prominently in the daily and weekly newspapers in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Among the artists represented are David Low, Ted Sinel, Walter A. Bowring, Andrew Kennaway Henderson, James Miller, Alan Stuart Paterson, Fred Cumberworth, John Gilmour and others.

New Zealand has had a long history of cartooning and has produced some outstanding cartoonists, some such as David Low, have attained international recognition.

However, the high point of this art form was within the first three decades of this century, which coincided with the heyday of the many illustrated weeklies such as Auckland Weekly News, New Zealand Illustrated, The New Zealand Free Lance, The Otago Witness, The Weekly Press, The Canterbury Times and Spectator to name but a few.

Each eventually had their staff cartoonist but also employed others on a freelance basis. Most of the drawings that comprise this exhibition are from the pictorial collection of Canterbury Museum to whom we are indebted for their willingness to make them available on loan.

('The Public Conscience – Selected Cartoons 1897-1925', Bulletin, No.73, April/May 1991, p.2)