Tag: New Yorker

My History Of The New Yorker Cartoon Class

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I am passionate for learning about history through looking at drawings, specifically the drawings from The New Yorker magazine.

Drawing by Barbara Shermund

I am teaching a virtual course on the history of The New Yorker Cartoon through the NY organization, 92NY. Here is a link to the course if you want to sign up! It starts March 16th and goes four consecutive Thursday evenings. Would love to see you there, and please spread the word.

Since it’s Women’s History Month, I thought I would share a few from women artists of the past. Through these drawings, sometimes one can see that things have changed; in many ways they have not. These artists chronicled their worlds with humor and drawing. Humor can reflect the zeitgeist of a time, and while sometimes we don’t “get” the reference, there are many that resonate 70 years later. It’s fascinating.

In my class, I will share New Yorker cartoons and talk about many different artists, both the men and women, as well as the few Black creators from the past (there was one that we know of before recent times, in the 1930’s, E. Simms Campbell). I talk about their work, their lives, the editors, and everything in between that I have learned. I taught this course last year in two sessions, and this year the 92NY agreed to extend it to four sessions, so I can take my time showing you things, and we can have questions after each class. We will discuss works up to present-day artists.

Enjoy!

 

 
Drawing by Helen Hokinson

 

 
Drawing by Helen Hokinson

 

 
Drawing by Alice Harvey
 
 
Drawing by Roberta MacDonald
 
Drawing by Mary Petty
 

BBC Profile

Recently, I had the pleasure to be profiled and interviewed by the BBC. Journalist and filmaker, Harriet Constable, came to my studio in the country and spent the day with me. She also was with me when I conducted a panel discussion about women cartoonists at the Society of Illustrators in New York, which was held on the night of the opening of the exhibit that I curated there about women who draw and have drawn cartoons for The New Yorker. The exhibit is called “Funny Ladies At The New Yorker, Then and Now” and runs until Oct 13th. The show is based on my history, “Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Greatest Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons” 
Here is the BBC profile:
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180817-the-female-cartoonists-who-draw-for-change

Packed House For Cartoonists Who Are Women in NYC!

Photo by Michael Maslin
Who knew that an exhibition about women cartoonists from The New Yorker would draw a huge, standing-room only, out-the-door-and-around-the-block crowd ?  When the room downstairs was full, they sent people to the second and third floors (where the bar was) and to the lower level (where the food was).  The evening was the opening event, and included a lively–at times hysterical– panel discussion with cartoonists Roz Chast, Liana Finck, Carolita Johnson, and New Yorker cartoon editor Emma Allen.  It was so much fun!  I selected and moderated the panel, and each participant was so funny and told stories and shared what the life of a cartoonist was like. Then we showed cartoons that are particularly feminist in tone, and talked about those. 
I curated the Funny Ladies At The New Yorker, Then and Now exhibition to include original art from 1925 through 2018. It is based in part on my book, Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons,a history of the women who drew for The New Yorker from the very first issue of the magazine in 1925. But the motivation for the show was also to celebrate that on Dec 4, 2017,  for the first time in its history,  the magazine published the first issue ever that included more women drawing cartoons than men. 
The show runs until Oct 13. There will be another panel event on Oct 11th!  It’s at the Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd, NYC. It’s a wonderful three story townhouse museum dedicated to art and illustration!  They have a restaurant bar on the third floor, check it out.
The Society of Illustrators, photo credit Steffen Kaplin, @Spinitsocial
Outside the Society of Illustrators. Photo credit Steffen Kaplin, @Spinitsocial

 

The panelists. Standing: Carolita Johnson, Emma Allen, Roz Chast; seated, Liana Finck, Liza Donnelly. Photo by Stephen Nadler.
Some of the cartoonists whose work is in the exhbition. Sharon Levy, Roz Chast, Liza Donnelly, Carolita Johnson, Liana Finck, Emily Sanders Hopkins (nee Richards), Sophia Warren, Mary Lawton, and Maggie Larson. Photo by Michael Maslin

 

    (Above photos credit Steffen Kaplan,  @SpinItSocial)

And here are photos of the exhibition:

 

 

Photo credits: @SpinItSocial, @lizadonnelly

 

 

 

Page Six!

 

Last week, my good friend and fellow New Yorker cartoonist, Marisa Acocella Marchetto had a terrificbook party to celebrate her new Graphic Novel, Ann Tenna.  It was held at Marisa’s husband’s restaurant, Da Silvano, and was covered on the New York Post’s Page Six, “Graphic Novel Debuts Among Media Elite”  It was fun to be mentioned as one of the New Yorker cartoonists who came to celebrate with Marisa.

 

 

 

The National Book Fair

hype 2
From The New Yorker

It’s been a while since I’ve done a book signing, in part because my most recent book, Women On Men, is an ebook.   But with print-on-demand,  it can be printed, and my publisher printed a whole bunch of copies and I was invited to sign them at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC on Saturday.  D.C. is my hometown– it will be nice to return for the weekend.

Here is a podcast for the Library of Congress,  where Martha Kennedy, director of the Prints and Drawings Division interviews me on my work and book.   I also was invited to donate some of my work to the collection, and it is a great honor for me to do so.

If you would to purchase a discounted signed, with drawing, copy of Women On Men, write me at liza@lizadonnelly.com