Raw Wounding Cartooning

Magnus Bard, Sufficiently Clear, October 19, 2017.
"- How to draw a sufficiently clear drawing, which shows
that (the party) SD-associates either do not approve of democracy...
or they are just blastedly ignorant".

A cartoon about the impossibility of drawing a double entendre and ending up with having to write it instead. That is, Magnus Bard did draw all of that and rather than being a degradation of the possibilities of imagery, he underlines the many double entendres at play within a drawing. Sometimes there is just the need to be a concerned citizen speaking in direct terms, in fact shouting them from a poster. All that a true cartoon is not.

Magnus Bard, Brake, February 4, 2013.
"-May I ask what sort of invention, you are working on?
- a brake".

So a non-drawing by Magnus Bard points to the fact that he is a critical voice refusing to be silenced. With which he refutes the philosopher Henri Bergson's claim that laughter is a momentary anesthesia of the heart causing insensibility to what is before us.

If anything the beholder of a cartoon by Magnus Bard may be insensible from taking a direct slam! The meaning hurts as if from a raw wound, directly and mercilessly. Contrary to what Bergson stated, every emotion is set in motion.

Which is at its most pure below in the simplicity of the line too, how a question mark is instantly cut down and with no need for an exclamation mark. He has rarely any use for them, the exclamation marks:

Magnus Bard, Swedish Steel, May 31, 2017.

"- Why shall they be thrown into hopelessness after

such a long time here and when we have even taught them

Swedish?! Why, Why, WHY??!!

- That's why"

Magnus Bard, To the World of Free Choice, March 27, 2017.
"We are consolidating ourselves on the market and seeking you
who are an economist. You are analytical and flexible. You are hungry and
thrive when challenged. For more information, contact...."

Magnus Bard draws with a "dirtied" line, in sections plumb and fat as the point-blank gesture from the brush. He has a specialty in corporate cartooning, undressing its codes and power playing. Such as his returning corporate lingo to its original connotation, all the worse for being tone-deaf to its meaning as much at play as it ever was. 

Detailing is constantly emerging everywhere from the flapping of the tie above to the extreme right-wing politician, Jimmie Åkesson below being led into the cathedral of art for his much-needed transformation. Representatives of groups within the population, he is daily seeking to suppress are seeing to that he not getting away. Before him are two aspirational dictators. The pair of them in synchronicity; Trump with white ringed eyes, the eyes of Putin ringed in black.

While art is a place to go for a glimpse of hope. Or not.

Magnus Bard, With Open Minds, March 4, 2017.
"The artist Marina Abramovic has a performance, in which anyone can take part
- How was it?
- Wonderful! About trusting other people, daring to show one's vulnerability and such things"

Magnus Bard is this year's recipient of the EWK Award and EWK Museet is presenting an extensive and beautiful exhibition of his works.

The cartoons shown are courtesy of Magnus Bard and must not be reproduced without his permission.