The War Criminal

 

Marilena Nardi, #PutinIsAWarCriminal, March 5, 2022.

When a major incident takes place on cartoonists are at once hesitant and are impatient to react immediately. They wish to prove the relevance of their art, but the first cartoons produced will still be tentative while their cartoonists are absorbing as much information possible of the reasons for the parties involved, the developments and their implications. 

At a certain point a change enters the scene. The cartoons gain a maturity in which their cartoonists dare to make those bold strokes that characterise a situation beyond itself. This is where cartooning demonstrate that it is indeed an art form.

The present cartoon of Marilena Nardi is a case in point. A political cartoon which contains every layer of a situation from the why to the what. Future generations will know and understand everything about the Russian war on Ukraine by this one cartoon.

It is a composition on the immobility of mind of the war criminal by way of the movement for which he is responsible. From the onslaught across the picture plane, the modulations of the Putinian body from his unseen desk to the missile strike on the Ukrainians within his boots. In the bloodied Ukraine underneath only a few humans are left to be seen; their contours drawn in the red of their blood.

The delicate Ukrainian colours have the air of a stained glass window with the human outcry from being punished by the wrath of a higher being. 

The latter one, however, is nothing but a stubborn limited mind turning the soles of his boots to the rest of the world.

The cartoon shown is courtesy of Marilena Nardi and must not be reproduced without acknowledging her name.