Ronald Searle: Satirist showcases examples of this great British cartoonist’s work at the height of his career as a graphic reporter during the 1950s and 1960s. Born March 3, 1920, to a working class family in Cambridge, Searle quit art school to join the Territorial Army as an Architectural Draughtsman in 1939. He was shipped to Singapore in October 1941, was captured by the Japanese a month after his arrival, He spent the remainder of World War II in a prisoner of war camp. Searle began cartooning for Punch in 1946 and was so successful there that he became a member of Mr. Punch’s Table, a very high honor, only a decade later. During this time, Searle also worked frequently for American magazines such as Holiday and Life. In 1960 he was the first non-American artist to receive the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award, its highest honor.

In the early 1960s Searle moved to France and began cartooning less and painting more. He created several limited edition prints over the last forty years. Searle collaborated on numerous book projects, as documented by the eighty-four titles associated with him that are held in this library.

The Cartoon Library and Museum was fortunate to purchase a collection of almost fifty pieces by Searle in 1995. Most of the works in this exhibition are selected from this purchase.