Design and Art Australia Online

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Date modified	April 18, 2012, 2:46 p.m.	Oct. 19, 2011, 1 p.m.
Roles	Artist (Printmaker) Artist (Sculptor) Artist (Screen Artist) Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator) Maker	Artist (Printmaker) Artist (Sculptor) Artist (Screen Artist) Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator)
See alsos	[<ExternalResource: ''Report Card', Weekend Australian (Media) 1-7 April, 1999, 6 (6 self portraits with a comment by each cartoonist himself (sic), an artist and a politician (anon).'.>, <ExternalResource: 'Self portrait Overland 67 (1977), page 66'.>, <ExternalResource: 'Self-portrait chained to drafting stand (King, 8)'.>, <ExternalResource: '(Self?) portrait (ill. King, 185)'.>, <ExternalResource: 'Petty, self-portrait cartoon on front page of the Age (Melbourne), 9 June 1976, among other men (Nicholson, Tandberg, Spooner and Tanner) as 'Australia's finest gallery of cartoonists''.>, <ExternalResource: Powerhouse Museum, 'Medibank poster', Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, NSW.>]	[<ExternalResource: ''Report Card', Weekend Australian (Media) 1-7 April, 1999, 6 (6 self portraits with a comment by each cartoonist himself (sic), an artist and a politician (anon).'.>, <ExternalResource: 'Self portrait Overland 67 (1977), page 66'.>, <ExternalResource: 'Self-portrait chained to drafting stand (King, 8)'.>, <ExternalResource: '(Self?) portrait (ill. King, 185)'.>, <ExternalResource: 'Petty, self-portrait cartoon on front page of the Age (Melbourne), 9 June 1976, among other men (Nicholson, Tandberg, Spooner and Tanner) as 'Australia's finest gallery of cartoonists''.>]
Related people	Australian Enlarging and Portrait Paintings Co., (associate of) Rigg, Julie (spouse of) Petty, Sam (parent of) Smith, Henry (associate of) Muggeridge, Malcolm (associate of)	Australian Enlarging and Portrait Paintings Co., (associate of) Rigg, Julie (spouse of) Petty, Sam (parent of) Smith, Henry (associate of) Muggeridge, Malcolm (associate of)
Related person groups	Punch (associate of) Melbourne Herald (associate of) Lot's Wife (Monash University) (associate of) New Yorker (associate of) Daily Mirror (associate of) Time Magazine (Australia) (associate of)	Punch (associate of) Melbourne Herald (associate of) Lot's Wife (Monash University) (associate of) New Yorker (associate of) Daily Mirror (associate of) Time Magazine (Australia) (associate of)
Related events	Cartoons 2004: Behind the lines: The year's best cartoons (None) [exhibition of Bruce Petty etchings] (exhibited at) Bringing the House Down (None) Australians in black & white : (the most public art) (None) Artists and cartoonists in black and white (None) Bringing the House Down (None) Bringing the House Down : 12 Months of Australian Political Humour (None) Fifty Years of Australian Cartooning (None)	Cartoons 2004: Behind the lines: The year's best cartoons (None) [exhibition of Bruce Petty etchings] (exhibited at) Bringing the House Down (None) Australians in black & white : (the most public art) (None) Artists and cartoonists in black and white (None) Bringing the House Down (None) Bringing the House Down : 12 Months of Australian Political Humour (None) Fifty Years of Australian Cartooning (None)

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Biography

Contributors 1991 Date created April 18, 2012, 2:46 p.m. Date modified April 18, 2012, 2:46 p.m. Cartoonist, film-maker, animator, sculptor and etcher, claims to have been born and raised on an orchard in Doncaster, Victoria, on the outskirts of Melbourne. He drew for MonashUniversity's student newspaper _Lot's Wife_ and worked for the Melbourne _Herald_ before travelling to Europe, Asia and North America in 1953. He reached London in 1954 and worked in England for six years, including a stint on _Punch_ under Malcolm Muggeridge. His comments on London are cited in Jensen (p.10). He also lived and worked in the USA and had cartoons published in the _New Yorker_ . The original of a cartoon published 22 November 1969 showing a Spanish dancer in a New York apartment (artist's collection) was included in Joan Kerr and Jo Holder's 1999 S.H. Ervin Gallery exhibition, _Artists in Black and White_ . Back home in 1960, Petty offered work to the _Bulletin_ , including roughs rejected by the _New Yorker_ ; they were preferred to his more finished work (Rolfe, p.271). Draws on paper with a pentel pen (Foyle, 95) and increasingly directly onto the computer.¶ ¶ ¶ Petty joined the Sydney _Daily Mirror_ as its political cartoonist in 1961, then transferred to the _Australian_ in 1964 (e.g. 1964 cartoon ill. King, 174; NLA original(?), 'What's the common fee for treatment of fainting on seeing the hospital bill' 1 March 1970). Then followed the Melbourne _Age_ in 1976, where he remains. Three 1970s originals, including one c.1972, are at ML PXD 764. The S.H. Ervin exhibition (cats 139-42) included: '"We must avoid a monopoly situation!"/ "Yes – Let's ring Rupert!"' published _Age_ January 1989; _Stop laughing this is serious_ – a parody of *Stan Cross* 's famous cartoon with 'Unions' clinging to 'Keating' – _Age_ 15 April 1989; _The Muse Machine_ published _Age_ 24 February 1990; and _One day, son, all yours could be this_ , published _Age_ 8 September 1990 – all from Petty's own collection.¶ ¶ ¶ Dinah & Michael Dysart own the original of 'Thank goodness they're elected, now we won't have to go to any more art exhibitions' (but Dinah couldn't locate it in 1999). 'I think you've cut something important' [on ABC cuts] and 'Fade away' [on Pauline Hanson], both published in the _Age_ in April 1997, and 'Things take time to go through the system' of July 1997, were exhibited in _Bringing the House Down: 12 Months of Australian Political Humour_ (Canberra: National Museum of Australia/ Old Parliament House exhibition, 1997), cats 27, 49, 77. His cartoon on the economy won best cartoon in the 1998 _Bringing the House Down_ show in which he continues to exhibit, including 2 cartoons in the 2001 show.¶ ¶ ¶ Petty has contributed to very many papers, magazines, posters etc, including _Time Magazine (Australia)_ and the _Australian_ as well as working in animation, sculpture and etchings. His cartoons include a print about TV flowers looking so real that a viewer yells 'FAKE!' at the real ones heading _The Broadsheet 3: Where are all the flowers going_ (poster containing 3 individual prints by three artists and 6 poems on one sheet, 1968 NGA) and _Overland_ 1969 (ill. Lindesay 1979, 315); also no 41, Winter 1969, pp. 12 & 23, two cartoons also critical of television; cover no. 35 (Summer 1966-7), Labor Party issue; no.26 (April 1963, 33) "Let's see now... one for the town hall, one for the railway station, one for the cement works, one for..." (a military general pointing to rocket launchers); more in file. He has published several books of cartoons, made posters (e.g. the official Adelaide Festival of Arts poster 1976), animated films – _Leisure_ won an Oscar in 1977 – and digital TV animated films. Petty and Henry Smith's multi-media _The Law Machine_ was shown at Parliament House in 1997. An exhibition of his etching was at the Australian Archives,Canberra, in 2002.¶ ¶ ¶ Petty was married to Julie Rigg (ABC Arts National Film critic) for years and they had 2 sons; he has at least one son by his second wife.¶ ¶ ¶ Under a good self-portrait on an article on contemporary cartoonists in the _Australian_ (1-7 April 1999), Petty of the _Age_ stated:¶ ¶ ¶ The aim is to be alarming, funny and correct at the same time. Of course, it's pretty hard to alarm now we are globally connected to the world's maddest events. We draw the politicians, but these days the politicians have largely given up on old ideas like equity, redistribution of wealth and service. They do sell-offs and safety nets. Governments will always get it wrong, they are trying to please people who generate wealth and people who haven't got any. We draw them getting it wrong.¶ ¶ ¶ The panel says:¶ ¶ ¶ The artist: "Fresh, challenging and equally unfair to everyone."¶ ¶ ¶ The politician: "Not so much a cartoonist as a national psychotherapist."¶ ¶ ¶ Examples: _The Penguin Petty_ includes a cartoon of archaeologists finding Venus de Milo's arms and a strip about woman not wearing a bra and her husband not wearing underpants because of Women's Lib (she doesn't wash underpants). The few originals in SLNSW include a rather dull drawing (V*/CART/35) for the SLNSW Open Week Poster 1980 (copy of poster also in collection), and _The Floor of Filth_ showing a couple running for an ark labelled 'Victoria' to shelter from a tiny black cloud labelled 'Portnoy's Complaint' in the sky, n.d. (DG A57, f.11: in SLNSW 1999 b/w show curated by Joan Kerr, Craig Judd and Jo Holder).