Research Point - Caricature

Newspapers rely on political cartoons to tell uncomfortable truths and make comments that would be unpalatable if written down. Lord Kenneth Baker thinks that Britains history of political cartooning is why we didn't have as much bloodshed and uprising as was seen in Europe. Caricature softens the blow a bit because it uses an exaggeration of the people involved there is an unspoken message that this doesn't have to be taken too seriously. It is fascinating that although we are extremely sensitive to the layout of a face in order to recognise someone we can still identify them when the features are changed. How do we do this? I guess that most of the time when we see someone we identify some key elements to confirm their identity. If the caricaturist exaggerates these it will point us in the right direction. If we see the caricature a lot we begin to identify it as a parallel version of that person, a sort of shorthand like a word or symbol. Then I found this article from 2011 which says that it is about key ratios from one feature to another. The text is very interesting but the caricatures of the author don't seem very recognisable to me. (Some work on development of facial recognition here)

Some faces are almost caricatures in their own right, I'm thinking of Donald Trump here, he has crazy  hair that doesn't quite look real, overly tanned skin and a very expressive mouth. Ben Jennings, in the Guardian has picked up on all these features in his cartoon here. They were picked up on by many other cartoonists for an exhibition at the Cartoon Gallery and a competition in Iran. However The Atlantic feels that he is a difficult subject. Is this because Americans feel uncomfortable with political satire? It is an unsophisticated medium which relies on a contract between the artist and the audience and it is very easy to miss the mark.

The caricatures don't evolve in isolation, Theresa May's caricatures bear more resemblance to Margaret Thatcher than she does in real life. They are both female prime ministers and May does have a slightly beaky nose but Thatcher's nose looks quite unremarkable to me even though it tends to be big in her caricatures (also here). There is some concern as to how to depict female politicians, particularly difficult for the predominantly male cartoonists. An ill judged caricature can make the viewer sympathetic to the character and change the message of the piece.

Some politicians such as Nick Clegg and David Cameron have been tricky for caricaturists to cover. Symmetrical faces are a problem but a lived in face or strong features helps and public activity (like Margaret Thatcher always carrying a handbag) helps to add detail.

 The caricaturists say that it's not so much about exaggerating features as finding some sort of deeper truth in seeing the subject to capture not just what they look like but their personality. Margaret Thatcher is a good example here. She was reported to be a woman of conviction who believed that she was doing the right thing. There is a sense of steely purpose in the way that the cartoonists portray her.