L’art et l’histoire de la caricature

From Greek vases to Egyptian ostracons all the way to French contemporary cartoonist Cabu, caricatures have always made the world go round. Here we have a complete panorama, including the Italian maestros (Leonardo da Vinci, Bernini sketching the pope whom he worked for!), the Age of the Enlightment (Hogarth, of course, and Rowlandson). When the process of reproduction were perfected, it was the time of the major newspapers: Le Rire, l’Assiette au Beurre or, abroad, Simplicissimus, Krokodil or Punch. The job was not necessarily relaxing since those "free pencils" were censored for a long time (and still are!). The book, which of course is largely illustrated, reminds us that caricatures are not only expressed in two dimensions. From caricatures in earthenware or plaster, which Daumier among others represented, to the knob of canes, umbrella handles or shoe-horns, the characters they wanted to taunt were placed everywhere. Alexandre Calder, with his extraordinary wire sculpture of Joséphine Baker, was one of the last artists to practice the genre.

• L’art et l’histoire de la caricature, by Laurent Baridon and Martial Guédron, éditions Citadelles et Mazenod, 2006, ISBN : 2-85088-222-4, 304 p., 65 €