March 23, 1998

Contact:
Craig D'Ooge (202) 707-9189

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Library of Congress and National Portrait Gallery To Hold Joint Event on Caricature and Cartoon

The Library of Congress and the National Portrait Gallery will sponsor a joint conference on "Caricature and Cartoon in Twentieth Century America" on Friday, May 15, and Saturday, May 16. The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. Contact either the Library of Congress at (202) 707-9115 or the National Portrait Gallery at (202) 357-1356.

The conference opens at the National Portrait Gallery on Friday, May 15, at 10 a.m and ends at 5 p.m. Alan Fern, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, will moderate presentations, which include:

"The Celebrity Caricature Vogue," by Wendy Wick Reaves, Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Portrait Gallery

"A Gentle, If Sometimes Mordant Irony¹: The Life and Times of Al Frueh," by Thomas Bruhn of the William Benton Museum, University of Connecticut, Storrs

"Ralph Barton: Affectionate Insults," by Bruce Kellner, author and Professor Emeritus of English at Millersville University

"Anything Goes: Caricature after 1960," by author and caricaturist Ed Sorel

Attendees will have the opportunity to see "Celebrity Caricature in America," an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery that includes more than 200 portraits of famous Americans from 1900 to 1950. The exhibition presents original drawings, sculpture, cigarette cases, a silk dress and cels from Disney's animated cartoon films. Accessibility services are available with two week's notice.

On Saturday, May 16. the conference continues from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Mumford Room of the Madison Building of the Library of Congress. Linda Ayres, Chief of the Library's Prints and Photographs Division, will moderate the day's presentations, which include:

"With Crayon and Ink: The Masses and the Revolution in Cartooning," by Sara W. Duke, Curatorial Project Assistant for Caricature and Cartoon in the Library of Congress

"Ollie Harrington: Cartoonist in Exile at Home and Abroad," by Christine McKay, an independent scholar

"Mauldin Dons His Musty," by Frederick S. Voss, Historian- Curator, National Portrait Gallery

"Oliphant's Anthem," by cartoonist Pat Oliphant

Attendees will have the opportunity to see "Monstrous Craws and Character Flaws," the inaugural exhibition in the Caroline and Erwin Swann Gallery for Caricature and Cartoon on the ground floor of the Jefferson Building as well as "Oliphant's Anthem: Pat Oliphant at the Library of Congress," a new exhibition in the South Gallery of the newly restored Great Hall of the Jefferson Building. The latter exhibition includes 51 political drawings, spanning Oliphant's career from his 1966 Pulitzer Prize winning cartoon to new work, with an emphasis on recent drawings. The exhibition includes the artist's working sketchbooks, illustrations, paintings, monotypes, and sculpture.

Interpreting services (American Sign Language, Contact Signing, Oral and/or Tactile) will be provided at the Library of Congress if requested by noon Friday, May 8, 1998. Call (202) 707-6362 TTY and voice to make a specific request. For other ADA accommodations, please contact the Library's ADA Coordinator at (202) 707-9948 TTY or (202) 707-7544 voice.

Books will be available for sale and signing by the speakers at the conference on both days.

The conference is funded by Mrs. John Timberlake Gibson, the Caroline and Erwin Swann Memorial Fund for Caricature and Cartoon, the Swann Foundation Fund, and the Kiplinger Foundation.

 

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PR 98-050
3/23/98
ISSN 0731-3527