Many times in a life, we often come across persons who have
created a new way of dealing with the
subject without having formal education of the one, Sir David Low was one of
them. Without having the formal education Sir David Low created wonders in the
field of editorial cartoons. Sir David Low is considered as the greatest
cartoonist of 20th century. Sir David Low became role model for many
artists all over the world, not only by his strokes, but also his fearless
expression of creativity.
Sir David Low was an extra
ordinarily creative as well as a studious kid. He used to study for so long that Low
was taken out of the school, as his parents believed that he had been weakened
by over studying. Low’s used to draw cartoons for his hobby. His first
cartoon published in the British comic book called “Big Budget”, when he was just
11 years old. Interestingly Sir Low was first attracted towards the field of
cartooning and caricatures by seeing British comics only.
Low worked for the Sydney
Bulletin in Australia, later went to London to pursue his career. Sir Low also
worked in the Canterbury Times where he got popularity due to his cartoons on William
Hughes, the then prime minister of Australia
Low joined the Star, a
London evening paper. This paper gave enough freedom to Sir Low. His cartoons
in this period were influenced by left-wing thoughts. In 1927 he joined the
Evening Standard as a political cartoonist. He made it clear before
joining that, there would be no editorial interference in his work. The Evening
Standard’s management also agreed and assured Mr. Low to give complete artistic
freedom and to give dedicated half a page for his cartoons. This helped Mr. Low
a lot in order to work on the concept as well as to sketch a cartoon detailing
many things. Low’s many legendary characters like the Two-headed Ass, the TUC
carthorse, and the Colonel Blimp are created in this period
Every artist needs an
opportunity or an event to express his creative capabilities fully. Second
World War gave such to the Sir Low. Disregarding the fact the Fascist forces were
power in the beginning, Low continued to make fun of the Fascist by showing
hollowness in their ideology. Sir Low’s cartoons on Fascist forces were so hard
hitting that, the Hitler added his name in ‘A Black Book’, a list comprises of
the persons to be punished after winning the allies. Even after getting
threats, censor notices from various important persons he continued to fight a
war against the Fascists. In a broader sense, Sir Low’s cartoon reduced the
fear about the Hitler and gave kind of confidence which was needed.
Sir David Low's cartoon depicting Hitler dancing over the democracies due to spineless leaders. |
Sir Low used to describe himself as a nuisance dedicated to sanity. Being a cartoonist it is sometimes necessary to create inconvenience for the things which could harm the larger interest. So, Sir David Low, in his 50 years of career created such nuisances for evils with his 14,000 drawings and inspired many to do so. Sir David Low, showed not just an art but a fearless way to fight mighty enemy that too democratically, that is priceless!
So what you think, what are the reason due to which Sir David Low was seen as threat to Nazis?
I came to know about David Low for the first time after reading this blog post. Having courage in those times when Hitler spelled terror to criticize the Nazis (Even Charlie Chaplin at that time poked fun at Hitler) speaks volumes about his commitment to society and humanity at large. And this courage is what makes dictators like Hitler see them as a threat. Since this courage can galvanize people to join forces and revolt against oppression.
ReplyDeleteMany great cartoonists like BT learnt from Low's art.
ReplyDelete