cartoonist, illustrator, commercial artist and printmaker, was born in London on 11 March 1905 (acc. Roger Butler’s National Gallery of Australia [NGA] website www.australianprints.gov.au), son of the Australian artist Frank P. Mahony [note different spelling] and his Australian wife, Mary, née Tobin. Will probably came to Sydney in 1914. He began his career there as a cadet on Smith’s Weekly, to which he subsequently contributed cartoons while working as a commercial artist in 1922-27. (Ward 1979, 8, claims that he studied at East Sydney Technical College 1930-31 and that his first prints were wood engravings, eg Shadows 1929 (tiger in bush) and The Lotus Eaters 1930.) He exhibited prints – etchings, linocuts, woodcuts and wood engravings – with the Society of Artists (1930-43), at Macquarie Galleries and at Rubery Bennett’s gallery.
In 1928-30 he contributed cartoons to the Sydney Evening News. His illustration An Artist’s Impressions of The Show was published in the Sydney Mail on 16 April 1930, 24. In 1931-32 he was political cartoonist on the World, e.g. Will Mahony’s Angle on Events, an editorial cartoon on the cost of federal government, published 26 August 1932, 2. He later contributed political cartoons to other newspapers, including Labor Call c.1930s-40s (see Senyard) and Labor Daily (1932-40), while teaching at Sydney Technical College. A number of his war cartoons are illustrated in King (143-51). He was sacked from the Daily Telegraph in 1945 after refusing to draw a political cartoon demanded by the editor. His replacement George Finey left soon after also but there are differing accounts over whether Finey was fired or chose to resign. Later he drew political cartoons for the Sydney Daily Mirror (1950-53), followed by a stint as a staff artist for Australian Consolidated Press [ACP] (1954-62). Then he again taught art at Sydney Tech. and contributed cartoons as a freelancer. Will Mahoney/Mahony died in Sydney in 1989, according to Roger Butler’s NGA website (elsewhere 1986).
The Mitchell Library’s [ML] Bulletin collection holds one original cartoon by Mahoney and 19 caricatures (1933-35), including ones of Fred Leist and J.G. Watkins (“Wattie”), painter, teacher and AGNSW trustee. Other cartoons include The Waverley Wailer’s Last Walk (featuring the “red bogey”), Daily News 1939 (ill King, 125), and the undated original The Power of the Press (re newsprint monopoly) [1930s-40s?] (Josef Lebovic Galleries). He also 'carved the most stylish woodcuts’, according to Stewart (p.36) who wrote that Mahoney and “George” [Aub?] Aria were 'inseparable’ mates.
Works in public collections include a good cartoon on censorship in Tomorrow 1946 (ill. Lindesay, WWW, 152). The Spooner Papers (ML PIC ACC 4899) have several original cartoons by various cartoonists featuring and collected by Sir Eric ('Neck to Knee’) Spooner, including Mahony’s Naughty Naughty [Spring as a lightly clad allegorical female being pursued by 'Purity League’ man with 'Spooner’s Patent’ neck-to-knee costume], “Here – you indecent hussy put this on!” n.d. but clearly mid-1930s so possibly for Labor Daily. Other cartoons collected by Spooner are by Tom Glover for the Sun (1937) and Sunday Sun (Oct 1934, 1935-37); by Stuart Peterson for the Sun 1934, 13 October 1938 (straight political – Spooner was also deputy leader) and 1939; by Walter Dowman (re fatmen banks etc on the back of the thin exhausted farmer, who is being whipped along by Spooner); by George Finey, EVICTED [Spooner as Landlady evicting little man in bowler hat]: “I’m not having any of your common type here” n.p., n.d., and another re Local Government Amending Bill. Brodie Mack drew Spooner as Nelson looking through telescope towards a beach of scantily clad people, Daily Telegraph 9 February 1937, et al.
- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2007
