Polish Satirical Drawing: From Press Cartoons to Memes
For two centuries, satirical drawings have been tied to the printed page – but that era is coming to an end right before our eyes. Does this mean visual satire is gone forever? Of course not. Having finally freed itself from the printing press, the medium still leaves audiences in stitches, taking on entirely new shapes and forms in the digital age
In the earlier times, illustrators were victims of a crusade against their profession. Now, they stand on the front lines fighting insecurity in the job market. In 2019, a well-known cartoonist – Ted Rall wrote an article for The Japan Times and mentioned very informative statistics about the American press. One hundred years ago, the American press used to provide full-time jobs for more than 2000 illustrators. Now, the number doesn't even reach 25. According to Rall, the situation got even worse after the Parisian Charlie Hebdo editorial office shooting in 2015. Even the best editorial teams with a long satirical drawing tradition ordered the illustrators to clear out their desks. The situation in Poland is similar, only its scale and dynamics are different.
Sticking pins into Western imperialism
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Zbigniew Lengren, press materials of the Eryk Lipiński Museum of Caricature in Warsaw
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When in 1830 Paris released the first issue of La Caricature, Poland published their first satirical drawings in Motyl. Two decades later, the Polish press released the first satirical newspaper – Zwierciadło Asmodeusza. Satirical drawing reached its top in the interwar period.
The golden time of the satirical printing press was when Poland regained independence. Apart from Djabeł, Szczutek, Sowizdrzała, and some more ephemeral titles, you could also buy Cyrulik Warszawski led by the Scamander group, Mucha, revived after World War II, and Szpilki (Pins), which survived the longest. During the interwar period, satirical columns found their place also in the daily newspapers.
At the end of the war, even before the shooting stopped, the satirical press started getting back on its feet. In 1944, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland was created under the watchful eye of the USSR. In September of that year in the same city, a new weekly satirical newspaper Stańczyk was published. Henryk Tomaszewski and Ignacy Witz belonged to the team of the newspaper's illustrators. The newspaper lasted about a month. It was closed down after the publication of a poem that mocked prime minister Edward Osóbka-Morawski.
In later years, the authorities under the communist regime developed a much warmer relationship with illustrators. The authorities realised that satire could serve both as a safety valve and as a discreet vehicle for propaganda. After all, a bright, left-wing illustrator of Szpilki could influence social moods more than a political dignitary with exaggerated speech and appearance unappealing to the public. In the early 60s, General Jerzy Zaruba stated bluntly:
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The revival of ‘Szpilki’ under the communist regime brought new subject matter and new tasks to the magazine. ‘Szpilki’ was out of the government's control; it followed the lead of their editorial management. So they had to deal with imperialism, war instigators, internal enemies, bureaucracy, heartless treatment, nonsense in the form of wrongly understood socialism, and so on.
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Sławomir Mrożek, from the collection 'Sławomir Mrożek: Collected Drawings'. The inscription reads: 'The Man Who Invented Himself!' Published by słowo/obraz terytoria
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Szpilki played a major role in the development of Polish satire. It also engaged readers by organising competitions for young talent. Not many know that Sławomir Mrożek, mostly associated with his great literary works, was an excellent satirical illustrator. In 1950, he was a participant of the young talent contest.
Generation of weekly newspapers
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Drawing by Janek Koza. The dialogue reads: 'Nothing but terrible news.' 'No, this is also a cartoon.' Courtesy of the artist
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Under the communist regime, satirical drawings were also presented at exhibitions, including at CBWA Zachęta. In 1978, The Museum of Caricature opened in Warsaw. It was done at the initiative of Eryk Lipiński, the graphic artist, caricaturist, satirist, and co-founder of Szpilki which was first published in 1936 and named after him. Initially, there was a plan to make it a branch of the National Museum in Warsaw. Ultimately, it became a part of the Museum of Literature.
In the 70s, Szpilki helped the drawing debutantes to spread their wings. Among them, there were Andrzej Mleczko and Andrzej Krauze. Both artists work to this day, but now they are master figures rather than the commentators of current events. The newspaper lasted until the half of the first decade of the Third Polish Republic. Various artists started joining weekly socio-cultural newspapers.
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Over the following decades, illustration remained closely tied to the press – a connection that can still be seen in the careers of several well-known artists. Take Henryk Sawka who worked for both Newsweek and Wprost, Bartosz Minkiewicz who became the face of Tygodnik Powszechny, and Andrzej Milewski, known as Andrzej Rysuje, who worked for Gazeta Wyborcza. Talking about the history of Polityka, there is no way we didn’t mention Andrzej Mleczko, Marek Raczkowski and Janek Koza. Artists are like sportsmen – they need to switch teams from time to time. Raczkowski went from Polityka to Przekrój to achieve the freedom of using vulgar language. Koza went the other way around. Most illustrators share the world view with the newspapers for which they work. Yet, there is one very paradoxical example. Let us take a look at the works of Andrzej Krauze from the end of the 80s. On the one hand, he was closely linked to the very liberal Guardian, but on the other – he made illustrations for very right-wing newspapers Sieci and Do rzeczy.
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Drawing by Marek Raczkowski. The gravestone reads: 'Marek Raczkowski, born 1959, died…' Photo: facebook.com/mraczkowskiofficial
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When we hear the names of the satirical illustrators, we can automatically associate them with their drawing styles. We associate Mleczko with pastel, smoothed images. The author himself takes the role of a funny external observer with fusty jokes. His humour is rather outdated and strongly resembles jokes taken from Polish kabarety. Marek Raczkowski made his debut in the early 1990s. His style is close to that of Sławomir Mrożek, who awarded him the Polish Cultural Foundation Prize in 2004. In the catalogue accompanying a 1961 exhibition of satirical drawing at Zachęta, Edmund Osmańczyk described Mrożek as one of the ‘talents surprisingly centred in themselves’. In other words, Mrożek’s work was abstract, laconic and strongly rooted in language – qualities that can also be seen in Raczkowski’s drawings.
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Anna Gosławska-Lipińska, drawing from the book 'Ha Ha Ha-Ga', published by Fundacja Bęc Zmiana. The caption reads: 'Please tell me once again how much fun we’re having, because I keep forgetting…' Photo: Eryk Lipiński Museum of Caricature
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Anna Gosławska-Lipińska, rysunek z książki "Ha Ha Ha-Ga", wydawca: Fundacja Bęc Zmiana, fot. Muzeum Karykatury im. Eryka Lipińskiego
To comment on the present political situation in Poland, Raczkowski’s drawings use a very ironically modified quote: ‘The anniversary of the agreement raised a lot of disagreements’ spoken by a television presenter. A frequent character of his drawings is an every-man figure called Stanisław from Łódź. Apart from that, we can also notice the author himself and his neurosis, all put together in a laconic form. A slightly different image we get from Koza, who uses fine liner and greyish paper to make his monochromatic and bicoloured drawings. It all emphasises the sketchiness of his art and takes him away from being a distant observer. We also have to mention Tomasz Broda, from Wprost, who instead of using satirical masks and characters, uses everyday tools. They all may have different drawing styles, but there is one thing that binds them together: 'In modern Poland, you draw to comment on politics' – wrote Marek Raczkowski in 2010. At the same time, Henryk Sawka said:
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A satirist is neither right-wing nor left-wing – neither at the centre of the issue nor beside it. A satirist should float above it all. Their art should ask questions without providing answers; defend the artist’s worldview without attacking others. That is how it should be.
But does laconic form allow you to exclude your own perspective and look at the topic from above?
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Drawing by Kasia Babis for SEXEDPL showing a person opening a book titled 'Understanding Women'. Inside, the only instruction is: 'Ask.'
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Producing drawings from a more personal perspective is to be noticed in the youngest generation of Polish illustrators, especially female. The model of satirical politics is also changing. Private means political so now satire changes its feed from the disputes in the Polish Parliament into social, cultural and traditional events.
Sebastian Frąckiewicz wrote for Polityka that ‘Polish satirical comics and drawings are turning into a direction relating to customs and it is a rather bitter pill to swallow.’ Whilst in America this change is a result of the editorial offices needing to secure themselves, in Poland it resembles work at the grassroots.
Satirical drawing is a profession visibly dominated by men. The female illustrators with their debuts in the interwar period like Anna Gosławska-Lipińska with a pseudonym Ha-Ga and Maja Berezowska are only exceptions which prove the rule. Numbers of other illustrators like Barbara Gawdzik-Brzozowska or Jolanta Karczewska, had many different occupations like creating film posters and sculptures. But the lists of today's weekly newspapers and opinion magazines remain dominated by men.
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When a male illustrator draws a man, he refers to the whole of humanity. When a woman draws a woman, is it no longer a symbol of a human being? Sometimes men write to me ‘Great text, but it’s such a shame! I could even identify with it unless the character on the drawing wasn’t a woman’ Why is it such a shame?! asked Magda Danaj talking with Jakub Knera.
Today's female illustrators are the generation who began their careers online. Similar to their earlier representatives, like Kasia Babis or Magda Danaj, they become engaged in work in many different fields, collaborating with comic editorial offices or video games studios. Before the rise of the internet in the 90s, small comic editorial offices were created, like for instance the one led by Michał Śledź Śledziński – Product (originally: Produkt) – with an office in the author's rented room. Many today's active illustrators were in the group, like for instance Bartosz Minkiewicz from Tygodnik Powszechny, the co-author of the Wilq Superbohater comic.
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Michał 'Śledziu' Śledziński. In this autobiographical comic, the artist recalls his first published comic strip, which appeared in the games magazine 'Gambler' in 1995. Courtesy of the artist
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‘“Product” was full of references to Polish everyday life. It concerned the existential problems of block neighbourhood youngsters, addictions, religion, politics, popular culture, especially the growing culture of Polish celebrities’ wrote Mateusz Zapała.
A different illustrating style was very far from the ‘dinosaurs of satirical drawing’ – quoting Marek Skwarski. The drawing style of Babis, known as Kiciputek, may be compared to the well-known American press cartoons. Her art was long-range because she also worked for the New Yorker and collaborated with The Nib – a website joining all illustrators, created in reaction to the earlier satirical newspaper crisis. Danaj – the author of Porysunki – is very far from the world of illustration with her flexible, monochromatic style. Even though both women seem to be traditionalists, they stay engaged in the present events. Their art includes the topics of sexual education and positive body image in the series created for the sexed.pl foundation (Babis) and Wysokie Obcasy (Danaj).
The illustrators of the most popular newspapers do not limit themselves to working only in one company. Jan Koza, for instance, works in a corporation and draws for Polityka. Bolesław Chromry quit his job in a commercial agency to work in a gallery, and, incidentally, published his first non-graphic novel. You can immediately notice that Chromry's works are deeply rooted in art; both his drawings and paintings have a similar style. His creative works allow us to see his sense of humour, presented in the form of ironic observations. Needless to say, you can't really make a living working as a satirist only, even if you are a master. Almost every leader of this profession produces mugs, calendars, t-shirts, and other gadgets with their drawings and sells them for some extra money.
The relationship between the internet and satirical drawing is rather peculiar. On the one hand, the internet created much space (like The Nib) for illustrators. On the other hand, it is a place where its opponent was born – memes. Some people, like for instance Marta Frej, adapted this revolutionary media to their drawing convention. Nobody seems to treat memes as negative media, and yet, this topic is very often touched upon during many discussions with illustrators. They say memes make the uniqueness of art blur out. ‘Earlier, there was an illustrator or a satirist who made people open their newspapers at least once a week and burst into laughter. Now, you can find a new meme every minute. Their army is unstoppable. They produce memes round the clock – how can you even compete with that?’ – said Bartosz Minkiewicz talking with Marta Górna. Tomasz Broda talking to the same journalist said that: ‘Memes are funny but they lack the personal sense of humour, signature and drawing line. Thus, we can hardly call it original art.’
When it comes to political satire – it comes full circle. One of the most popular artists and political curators of the Polish internet is the administrator of Twitter and Instagram of the weekly newspaper Nie (No). Here satirical drawing didn't entirely separate itself from the newspaper origins. In this instance, social media is used to promote the newspaper's content. We may imagine that some of their recipients have never had a newspaper in their hands. In this situation, social media runs the show and the newspaper is only an addition. Satirical illustrators can breathe a sigh of relief: even if the world cares less about regular newspaper cartoons, it will always need sharp, funny people who know how to turn politics into images, memes and online jokes.
Translated from Polish by Sylwia Sienicka