Mad little notes : Steve Bell

Steve Bell in person, Image from www.varndean.ac.uk

Steve Bell is a political Caricature / Freelance Illustrator 9 who worked for Time Out and City Limits magazines from 1979 to 1987, since 1981 he has been creating illustrations for the Guardian.14,18 Steve Bell is a British caricature artist that focuses on the United Kingdom political system and scenario. Steve Bell has won a wide range of awards for his illustrations from What the Papers Say Cartoonist of the Year 1993 to Political Cartoon Society Cartoon of the Year 2008.12

Steve Bell latest work from the Guardian website

Bell first studied art at the Teeside School of art he moved to Leeds University to study Art and Film after being disappointed with Teeside narrow definition of art. 4 He has received honorary degrees from the Universities of Sussex, Teeside, Loughborough, Leeds and Brighton.5, 8, 13 Bell began cartooning at Leeds with creation of his alter ego Monsieur L’Artiste.1 With this alias he has also created a Character which is meant to be him but is French. With this character he reappears in other illustrations such as Bell Epoque 22 which is an illustration based on a famous art piece of Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec.21 The piece by Lautrec is called “in a Salon of the rue des Moulins”23, with this Steve bell has referenced from it and recreated the same poses of the women from the painting but changing their appearance to British Politicians such Gordon Brown or Margaret Thatcher.

Steve Bell version of "in a Salon of the rue des Moulins" from belltoons

The original "in a salon of the rue des Moulins" by Lautrec, the image is from Design history

With Steve bell’s illustrations he uses pencil to create a rough outline, then he colours it in watercolours and then inks the outline of the sketches to create his illustrations/ comic strip. 3 With his illustrations he bases them on British politicians such as David Cameron. In his design of Cameron he has morphed him into a giant condom. 15 Steve Bell drew Cameron as giant condom because “I saw smoothness and a distinct air of plausibility.... the more I saw of Cameron, the more his smoothness seemed to develop and encompass all his other features”. 16 The same goes for the other PM’s he always gives them something that give them, their own characterise such as Margaret Thatcher is always present in a straight jacket in Steve Bell’s illustrations. Steve Bell does this because he said “she was mad, she was not clinic mad, border line clinic mad, she was absolute obsessed and convinced to her rightness.” 2,19

Steve Bell is also a fan of the Beano and a major influence is the Cartoonist Leo Baxendale which influenced his style of work. 6,13 He did try and follow this artist and work for the Beano but he got rejected because his work was not suitable for the children’s comics.7,13 In Steve bell early career he created children’s comics like Whoopee and Cheeky and Jackpot. 10 He also produced illustrations and comic strips for different magazine from Social Work Today to the Radio Times. 11 With his work pieces he dates everyone that he has done for the Guardian, so at the moment he is on 7308 illustrations.20,24

Some of Bell’s work has always received criticism 25 for example one was a picture of Binyamin Netanyahu the Israeli prime minister holding a press conference with William Hague and Tony Blair as glove puppets.26 The picture caused an outrage in the Jewish community and the CST (Community Security Trust).27 The complaints that Steve bell got were the constant use of the term “Anti-Semitic” or even be called a Nazi.28,31 But Steve Bell himself has said that it was not about Jewish culture but about Binyamin Netanyahu “It’s not anti-Semitic, it is focused on him as a politician, on his cynicism”.28 He did expect and was aware that the image of a Jew as a puppet masters is an anti-Semitic theme.29 But he does not approve that this should stop him from using imagery to address Netanyahu.30