Rude Britannia Looks at 300 Years of British Comic Art

Comics Fine Art — June 7, 2010 at 12:52 Share

From the Rude Britannia exhibit: Thomas Rowlandson A French Dentist Shewing a Specimen of his Artificial Teeth and False Palates (detail) 1811 Courtesy Andrew Edmunds, London

This Wednesday, “Rude Britannia” opens at London’s Tate Britain museum. The museum will showcase British Comic Art from the 1600s to today. The Exhibit is broken into six sections: British Comic Art, Social Satire and the Grotesque, Politics, The Bawdy, The Worship of Bacchus, The Absurd. The show runs through September 5.

Tate Britain describes the exhibit:

Gasp, cringe, or have a sly chuckle: Rude Britannia will certainly cause a reaction. See politicians brought down to size and the great and the good exposed; blush at the saucy postcards and laugh out loud at the slapstick fun – but watch out for that banana skin!

Put together with some the country’s best-known cartoonists and comedy writers, this exhibition explores British comic art from the 1600s to the present day. Bringing together a wide array of paintings, sculptures, film and photography, as well as graphic art and comic books, the exhibition celebrates a rich history of cartooning and visual jokes.

Links: Rude Britannia web site and Rude Britannia Exhibition Guide

Tags: Rude Britannia