Existing comment:
The cartoon is a mirror that shows, in a different way, albeit in a similar form, the reality of a country. It allows the artist to build with images -- an obsession of the human being -- the universe s/he dwells, is an attempt to understand it.
Although satirical drawing has always existed, the origin of the cartoon is located in the nineteenth century, and is linked to the birth and development of the press. Journalism and cartoon go hand in hand.
The exhibit, 100 Years of Cartoons in El Universal, reads as a nodal part of the history of the cartoon in Mexico. Almost all Mexican cartoonists of the twentieth century have traveled through this newspaper. The exhibit collects a brief sample of the thousands of cartoons published in 100 years and includes a brief representation of these artists who traced and portrayed the history of the nation.
The pages of El Universal have shown the critical work, with aesthetic greatness by artists such as Andres Audiffred, Eduardo del Rio Rius, Helioflores or Rogelio Naranjo, who have shaped Mexican national events with art and humor. These artists have gained recognition in Mexico and beyond borders: more than a half a dozen of them won the National Journalism Prize, or awards as important as the Canadian Grand Prix.
The exhibition consists of seventy pieces; sixty-two of them are original pieces, of great aesthetic value. Most come from the Museo de la Caricatura in Mexico City, from the authors themselves, and from private collectors.
For the works shown at the Mexican Cultural Institute, it was decided to give a reading linked to three topics: the American cartoon, the vision of the cartoonists around Uncle Sam and finally their take on American presidents. 100 Years of Cartoons in El Universal is complemented with the first cartoonists of El Universal and concludes with the great masters of the Mexican cartoon.
Knowing 100 years of this story through graphic humor, allows us to understand who we are, because humor is something very serious.
Agustin Sanchez Gonzalez
Researcher at the Mexican National Institute of Fine Arts |