Laid out with ‘terrible gout', cartoonist Ralph Steadman misses own party
Thursday, 2nd May 2013
Steadman cartoons: The White Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland 1967' ; Self-portrait, 2006; From I, Leonardo, 1983
All images © Ralph Steadman
Published: 2 May, 2013
by TOM FOOT
THE spirit of Ralph Steadman pours out of the walls at the retrospective of his lifetime’s work in the Cartoon Museum, Bloomsbury.
But the great man was nowhere to be seen at the launch on Tuesday night.
Laid out with “terrible gout”, his daughter Sadie brought a typically weird message from the family home in Maidenhead.
It said: “I’m sorry I can’t be here with you today – but the pain is too bad.
"I will instead sit at home and consider my next book, perhaps about feet. I hope you enjoy finding out about my lifetime’s work. But no one will ever know my inside leg measurement.”
Mr Steadman, who is 77 this month, was born in Liverpool in 1936 and his first published cartoon appeared in the Manchester Evening Chronicle in July 1956.
From the early 1960s his work began appearing in magazines such as Punch and Private Eye, and became a key part of what was subsequently known as “The Satire Boom”.
Later in the 1960s he also began to create illustrated books for both children and adults.
His award-winning 1967 version of Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland was followed five years later by his even more striking Through the Looking Glass.
The cartoonist Martin Rowson said: “Ralph is, I think without question, one of the truly greatest visual artists this country has produced, in the last 100 years.
"A couple of years ago there was the Ronald Searle exhibition. The thing about Ralph is the same as the thing about Searle – it’s the way they wrangle a line, and also how their personalities pour out of their work hanging on the wall.
"Ralph’s work is sexy, better yet – it’s dirty sexy. This is wonderful stuff.”
Steadman’s illustrations make up the labels of the Flying Dog beer – an American brand – and the company’s chief executive Jim Carruso, a long-time friend of Mr Steadman who sponsored the exhibition, was there.
Lucy and Charlie Paul, who made a feature film about Mr Steadman, were also at the launch on Tuesday.
Oliver Preston, chairman of the museum’s trustees, said: “You always get something different with Ralph. We’ve never ever had a show for a single artist on the entire lower floor.
“The pictures are so large and they are just such an explosion of colour. I’d like to give a special thanks to Henry Steadman, who did the design of the catalogue. It was beautifully produced and all profits go to the museum”
The catalogue contains contributions from Mr Rowson, Will Self and Johnny Depp.
Ralph Steadman will be 77 on May 15 and shows no signs of running out of his “weird” ideas, according to curator Anita O’Brien.
