Art Fair week
No Ancients this week, as I’m up London at the Affordable Art Fair Battersea - but here’s a few Berger & Wyse cartoons from days of yore with an artistic theme…
If I recall correctly, this one was Mr Wyse’s inspiration, from our tenure at the front of The Guardian Weekend magazine.
Years earlier, when our cartoon was on the food pages of the same, we often took as our inspiration the inner lives of fruit and vegetables. Is it too much of a stretch to imagine tomatoes might live in a cool apartment with Andy Warhol prints on the wall? Yes it probably is.
And years before that, we had a weekly four panel strip in the Film and Music section of The Guardian, The Pitchers, that ran from 2003-2009. Chet and Foley were our Hollywood hopeless screenwriters, here enjoying some high art.
Gosh time flies. I think I’[m a bit more careful with my lettering these days. Used to do it in pencil!
Speaking of pencils, this year’s model (great Elvis Costello album) is a return to the original yellow. This one is called Ticonderoga, which may only make sense to US followers. Let me know in the comments if it resonates, or indeed if not, and I’ll spill the beans. And if you’re in London, come along to the fair and say hi in person - I’ll be there! Being Square.
Ticonderoga is an excellent choice as it refers to the name of the company and location where the classic American pencil was made.
Good ol' #2 Ticonderoga, my preferred tool for many creative and scholarly tasks. I'm old enough to remember when they were made in the US instead of China.