The Language of Graphics and Visual Art Term Paper

The language of graphics and visual art seems much more understandable and concise, judging from the editorial cartoon, created by Anita Kunz published on the cover page of “The New Yorker” for January 22, 2007. The present paper is intended to analyze the artwork and interpret the elaborated message which underlies the funny image.

Anita Kunz is designer with truly international experience: Canadian by birth, she has lived in New York, London and Toronto, contributing to the national newspapers and also temporarily stayed in Norway, Japan, Portugal, Sweden, Germany, South Africa, France and Holland, working at the local advertising agencies, book publishers and design organizations. She was born in 1958, in 1975 Kunz became a student of the Ontario College of Art and Design and starting from 1980, she has been acquiring increasingly greater popularity for her authentic illustrations for books, newspapers and magazines¹. As Heller and Arishman write, “From 1988 to 1990 she was one of two artists chosen by Rolling Stone magazine to produce a monthly illustrated History of Rock’n Roll end paper. She has produced cover art for many magazines including Rolling stone, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Time Magazine, Newsweek Magazine and The Atlantic monthly” ².

Anita Kunz’s 2007 cartoon depicts caricature George W. Bush in the clothes of Roman emperor, standing on the tribune and playing harp so that the music he is making comes into the microphone. Behind the main character’s back, one can notice fire. On the picture, the man resembling George W. Bush looks inspired and spiritual, and his peaceful face expression obviously can be contrasted with the flames on the background. The dominant chromatic of the artwork is hot, as the main color is “marble brown”. The scene is pictured on the light brown, so the main character stands out for his blue and white clothing as well as his face, drawn in high key and high contract. All colors on the work are matted and saturated, and the artwork itself seems to be in the perfect condition. The color gamma, chosen by the designer, is quite rich, as there are apparent half-tints and undertints; e.g. in order to create the impression of the “marble brown” on the background, the author experiments with various types of brown color, sometimes making it lighter and mixing it with color grey in certain places. The presidential tribune is pictured in grey, the “official” color, normally associated with the style of the President’s Administration.

The only human on the artwork in shown in the irregular proportions, as his head is unnaturally large, as compared to the relatively small torso and hands. The man’s facial traits also fail to comply with the regular proportions of human face, as he has really huge chin, mighty neck and extremely small eyes, staring at the audience from under his bushy eyebrows. The compositions suggests that the author sought to depict the former President as a person of strong willpower, but not so strong ability to critical thinking, as extraordinary mental capabilities and meticulousness are normally associated with big eyes and notable forehead. Lines are used to underline all unnatural aspects of the artwork; in particular, instead of drawing the main character’s face (which is a more delicate part) with slighter and less notable lines, the artist decided to underline its deformities with thick black lines. The man’s clothing is performed very thoroughly, so that lines are used to show the numerous folds on the “emperor’s” toga. Surprisingly, his hands are pictured with thinner and more curved lines, so that they appear to be small and tender; his wrists look particularly “feminine”.

The style of the artwork is cartoon or caricature, due to the irregular composition and the grotesque form of expression. In particular, the man resembling George W. Bush is obviously “big-headed”, as it has been mentioned above, but his big head should be interpreted literally, not as an idiom, as his massive chin, shown even with the minor details (wrinkles, square shape and so forth), constitutes the main part of his face. At the same time, the forehead and eyes, commonly associated with intelligence, are disproportionately small. His opened mouth expresses grotesque and exaggerated inspiration, whereas hi eyes see to express positive surprise, which is not compatible with his thick eyebrows and heavy chin, the traits of determination and even cruelty. Moreover, he is dressed in the ancient costume and instead of delivering a speech from the tribune the man is playing harp. Interestingly, the look of his “womanly” hands seem to conflict with his “strong-willed” chin, large nose and small eyes, which makes the protagonist even more comic. The artwork is placed on the glossy paper, normally used in magazine publishing and created obviously with using both gouache and Photoshop (or Corel) picture managers. So far the drawing has been handled in accordance with the general rules (concerning moisture and protection from discoloration), so there are no signs of damage.

Ideologically, the editorial cartoon obviously compares George W. Bush to Nero, a Roman emperor, known for his mercilessness and sadistic inclinations. Nero was one of the most cruel persecutors of the early Christians, or people of different religious background. He was also very skilled harp player. In fact, George W. Bush initiated the American attack on Iraq and similarly to Nero continued to oppress the people of non-Christian affiliation. The major event which encouraged Anita Kunz to create this caricature appeared to be the negotiations which started on January 10, 2007 concerning the international relations with Iraq and the necessity of reconstructing the infrastructure of the country half-marred by the military conflict. Although the former President approved of the specified measures, he refused even to appoint a deadline of the withdrawal of the U.S. troops and even ordered that 22 thousand more “peacemakers” stayed in the country. These actions were widely criticized for the lack of consistency and common sense, so the artist decided to “eternalize” this important moment in American history.

When drawing the same picture, I tried to copy the author’s style, as the message she tried to convey through caricature expression seemed to me credible. At the same time, I made the main character’s head even bigger, so that his body looked smaller and more comic. Taking into consideration the disappointment of the America population with Gerge W.Bush at the advent of the financial crisis, I made his harp even larger, as his rating suggests that in the last months of his presidency, which coincided with the recession, he tried merely to “calm down” citizens, without taking specific and workable measures³, so he failed to tell the truth, and the harp can be viewed as an instrument of lies. Geoge W. Bush was also not perceived by Americans as a resolute and strong willed person, so I made his chin thinner. It also eed tobe noted that I decided to remove laurel fro his head, since at the moment Geroge W. Bush is not the head of the state any longer.

I believe I have succeeded in the reproduction of the tone of the picture. I managed to draw the large tribune and the harp player, hiding the flames of economic and political problems in the country. When drawing his hands, I tried hard to make them small and “fragile”, as so that they resembled the original work; this aspect was particularly important, because symbolically small hands mean weakness and inability to manage and handle the issues of the state level, which Bush’s rating suggests ⁴. However, I failed to reproduce the truly inimitable face expression which the designer eternalized on the face o the main character. In my own version, the former President seems simply scared, taking into consideration his opened moth and round eyes. That was the only mistake which I made involuntarily, the other dissimilarities, as it has been noted above, are intentional. The exercise with “copying” the caricature allowed me to learn the elements of which cartoons are composed, the importance of each detail and element as a powerful message; moreover, by interpreting Kunz’s work, I became sensitive to the ideological nature of such works.

Works cited

Heller, Steven and Marshall Arisman. Marketing Illustration: New Venues, New Styles, New Methods. Allworth Communications, Inc., 2009.

McKay, D. American Politics and Society. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

Footnotes

1. Heller, Steven and Marshall Arisman. Marketing Illustration: New Venues, New Styles, New Methods. Allworth Communications, Inc., 2009, p. 5.
2. Heller and Arishman, ibid, p. 6.
3. McKay, D. American Politics and Society. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, p.56.
4. McKay, D. ibid, p. 59.