Mocking The Preposterous: How to Taunt Tyrants and Survive - A Short Guide to 45,000 years of Visual Satire

Martin Rowson, lead editorial cartoonist for The Guardian, discusses how visual satire works as an intersection between art and politics, and particularly how it relates to political power in holding it to account and how political power responds, through the law and every other weapon available to it. The talk will be fully illustrated with examples from cave art onwards, concentrating particularly on 18th century British visual satirists William Hogarth and James Gillray, but also Rowson's own work and that of his colleagues who work in far less forgiving or tolerant climates than he does.

Note: Rowson's work sometimes involves explicit imagery that may not be suitable for all audiences.

This talk is part of the conference "Law and New Media" Sept. 16-17. Conference info and registration

Funding provided by The Dibner History of Science Program at The Huntington