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Catalogue information
LastDodo number
5658777
Area
Drawings / paintings
Title
The World Serious
Artist
Art object
Art Movement / style
Genre
Material
Technique used
Colouring
Dimensions
38 x 28 cm
Series / hero
Collection / set
Number
Addition to number
Year
1938
Country
Language
Details
Original editorial cartoon on Bainbridge coquille board in pen, ink and crayon, 1938, syndicated to a number of newspapers, shows ‘the world’ facing a baseball pitcher in the form of Mars, who has a series of bombs representing ‘international anarchy’, ‘colonial demands’, ‘secret pacts’ and ‘civilian bombings’. The (bullet-)riddled diplomacy of the World is facing the pitcher with some trepidation while Uncle Sam looks on as umpire who is ‘not responsible for injuries to spectators’, i.e. he remains neutral. On the scoreboard Spain has one run, Japan two. This refers particularly to the use of aerial bombardment of cities and civilian targets during the later 1930s. Recent use of bombers in China by Japanese forces (Shanghai and Nanking) and the bombing of Madrid during the ongoing Spanish Civil War (as well as Guernica in the previous year) had brought home the potential threat of such weapons. Card size 38 x 28 cm (15 x 11 inch), image size 31 x 26 cm, signed lower left with nine zeros as underline. Caption in pencil in upper border, in very good condition.