What do you think?
Oliphant: An Informal Gathering
Political cartoons from Pat Oliphant, covering the end of Richard Nixon, through the Ford administration and on to Jimmy Carter. Everything from Watergate, seal-clubbing, the energy crisis and the SALT talks. The cartoons appeared in the Denver Post (1973-1975) and the Washington Star (1975-1977).
- GenresPolitics
192 pages, Hardcover
First published June 29, 1978
About the author
Pat Oliphant
40 books8 followersPatrick Bruce Oliphant was an Australian-born American artist whose career spanned more than 60 years. His body of work primarily focused on American and global politics, culture, and corruption; he is particularly known for his caricatures of American presidents and other powerful leaders. Over the course of his long career, Oliphant produced thousands of daily editorial cartoons, dozens of bronze sculptures, and a large oeuvre of drawings and paintings. Pat was one of only seven cartoonists to win the prestigious Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. He retired in 2015.
Major awards:
1967 - Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning
1968, 1972 - Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year*
won the Reuben Award for Editorial Cartooning seven times
Note that after 1988, the National Cartoonists Society amended their guidelines so that former winners of the award were not eligible to be included.
Major awards:
1967 - Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning
1968, 1972 - Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year*
won the Reuben Award for Editorial Cartooning seven times
Note that after 1988, the National Cartoonists Society amended their guidelines so that former winners of the award were not eligible to be included.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
June 22, 2021
From colonial times to the present day Australia has a grand tradition of political cartooning: from The Bulletin we have Hop, Will Dyson, Norman Lindsay and the young David Low, later Sir David, long time cartoonist for the Evening Standard in Britain. Even though technically he was a Kiwi, we claim a bit of him because he drew in Australia from 1911 to 1919 when he went to Old Blighty. This is the David Low/ Ruth Park/ Russell Crowe rule whereby we claim talented New Zealanders because they spent time here. We made a mistake with Joh Bjelke–Petersen.
Later in our cartooning history we have John Frith, WEG (William Edward Green), Les Tanner and the doyen of Australian editorial cartoonists Bruce Petty, who started off in Britain but came back, plus Ron Tandberg and Alan Moir, who is still working. Ron Tandberg was my art teacher in second form at Williamstown High School, classes I remember with great fondness. Ron wasn’t the most dedicated teacher but he was relaxed and a great bloke.
But the best of them all is Pat Oliphant, from South Australia and nephew of Sir Mark Oliphant, nuclear physicist and later Governor of South Australia. Oliphant went to the USA in 1964 and stayed there working as an editorial cartoonist for half a century, for the Denver Post, the Washington Star then independently. He lampooned every president from Johnson to Obama and came out of retirement to show Donald Trump as a juvenile member of The Hitler Youth. Beyond that Oliphant essayed domestic issues of the day from race relations to the energy crisis and welfare fiascos as well as a broad range of international events.
An Informal Gathering contains some of Oliphant’s best work, covering 1973-1977, one of the most interesting periods in American politics from the end of Nixon through to Jimmy Carter via Gerald Ford. Pat Oliphant’s drawing is impeccable, the caricatures are inspired and merciless and his layouts are superb, with lots of relevant, not just extraneous, detail. Unusual too, in this field, is that his drawings of objects are convincing, his cars, tractors, aircraft, buildings and interiors look right. He is also imaginative, for example his inspired Watergate ‘bugs’. There’s an early one (25 March 1973) with Richard Nixon attempting to smother a giant ‘Watergate’ bug to stop it blabbing about the break-in. Another one on 10 June 1977 has cowering cave people looking out at a huge carnivorous dinosaur labelled ‘Detroit’. They ask: ‘Hey Jimmy – you got rid of that big ol’ dinosaur yet?’ as President Jimmy Carter tries to outlaw gas-guzzling cars.
Early on Oliphant introduced a tiny penguin called Punk who appeared in most of his cartoons to add an oblique comment, rather like the Common Man in R K Laxman’s Times of India editorial cartoons. Oliphant often casts his eye beyond the continental United Sates and there are several cartoons about events in India. At the time 'India Joins the Nuclear Club', Oliphant draws a poor Indian who is startled when a mini mushroom cloud erupts in his food bowl. There’s a particularly telling cartoon of Indira Gandhi as a wicked witch holding an apple which appears to be bleeding, labelled ‘A State of Emergency’ as she says ‘Who were you expecting? Snow White?’
In post resignation exile at San Clemente, Richard Nixon looks menacingly at the family pooch. Pat Nixon is dead heading the daisies and says: ‘Just because Indira Gandhi gets away with jailing the opposition, stopping the media, changing the law, and forgiving herself is no reason to kick the poor dog.' And finally as Indira Gandhi throws more protesters in jail; two imprisoned political dissidents spy an inscription on their prison wall ‘Mahatma Gandhi 1922 for sedition.’ One says to the other: ‘Probably no relation…’
Marvellous collection. Great cartoonist.
Later in our cartooning history we have John Frith, WEG (William Edward Green), Les Tanner and the doyen of Australian editorial cartoonists Bruce Petty, who started off in Britain but came back, plus Ron Tandberg and Alan Moir, who is still working. Ron Tandberg was my art teacher in second form at Williamstown High School, classes I remember with great fondness. Ron wasn’t the most dedicated teacher but he was relaxed and a great bloke.
But the best of them all is Pat Oliphant, from South Australia and nephew of Sir Mark Oliphant, nuclear physicist and later Governor of South Australia. Oliphant went to the USA in 1964 and stayed there working as an editorial cartoonist for half a century, for the Denver Post, the Washington Star then independently. He lampooned every president from Johnson to Obama and came out of retirement to show Donald Trump as a juvenile member of The Hitler Youth. Beyond that Oliphant essayed domestic issues of the day from race relations to the energy crisis and welfare fiascos as well as a broad range of international events.
An Informal Gathering contains some of Oliphant’s best work, covering 1973-1977, one of the most interesting periods in American politics from the end of Nixon through to Jimmy Carter via Gerald Ford. Pat Oliphant’s drawing is impeccable, the caricatures are inspired and merciless and his layouts are superb, with lots of relevant, not just extraneous, detail. Unusual too, in this field, is that his drawings of objects are convincing, his cars, tractors, aircraft, buildings and interiors look right. He is also imaginative, for example his inspired Watergate ‘bugs’. There’s an early one (25 March 1973) with Richard Nixon attempting to smother a giant ‘Watergate’ bug to stop it blabbing about the break-in. Another one on 10 June 1977 has cowering cave people looking out at a huge carnivorous dinosaur labelled ‘Detroit’. They ask: ‘Hey Jimmy – you got rid of that big ol’ dinosaur yet?’ as President Jimmy Carter tries to outlaw gas-guzzling cars.
Early on Oliphant introduced a tiny penguin called Punk who appeared in most of his cartoons to add an oblique comment, rather like the Common Man in R K Laxman’s Times of India editorial cartoons. Oliphant often casts his eye beyond the continental United Sates and there are several cartoons about events in India. At the time 'India Joins the Nuclear Club', Oliphant draws a poor Indian who is startled when a mini mushroom cloud erupts in his food bowl. There’s a particularly telling cartoon of Indira Gandhi as a wicked witch holding an apple which appears to be bleeding, labelled ‘A State of Emergency’ as she says ‘Who were you expecting? Snow White?’
In post resignation exile at San Clemente, Richard Nixon looks menacingly at the family pooch. Pat Nixon is dead heading the daisies and says: ‘Just because Indira Gandhi gets away with jailing the opposition, stopping the media, changing the law, and forgiving herself is no reason to kick the poor dog.' And finally as Indira Gandhi throws more protesters in jail; two imprisoned political dissidents spy an inscription on their prison wall ‘Mahatma Gandhi 1922 for sedition.’ One says to the other: ‘Probably no relation…’
Marvellous collection. Great cartoonist.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review