Pictures of Pat – Oliphant Remembered
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There have been a number of tributes to Pat Oliphant, here we link to some of them.
Ann Telnaes writes of her admiration of Pat Oliphant.
People will throw around the label of legend in the editorial cartooning profession but Pat Oliphant was truly one. Not only did his editorial cartoons and caricatures slice right through deserving politicians and public figures, his draftsmanship was on a level far above everyone else. No one came close to his drawing ability in editorial cartooning…
Nick Anderson at Counterpoint (scroll down):
His influence on editorial cartooning is impossible to overstate. Every cartoonist working today—whether they realize it or not—draws in a profession he helped redefine. His sparse compositions, devastating caricatures and uncompromising independence raised the standard for everyone who followed. He proved that a single drawing, executed with intelligence and courage, could say more than a thousand-word editorial.
Aaron Classy on Pat’s influence on a young cartoonist.
Yesterday, we lost a giant in the editorial cartooning world, and I will leave it to the more experienced cartoonists who knew him and his work much better than me to eulogize him. So instead, somewhat selfishly, I will talk about how much his work meant to me…
Where other cartoonists seemed to fall back into formulaic categories for their humor, Oliphant always used a “fresh” line of humorous attack, one which struck me as original and not something that I was expecting or thinking, however delulu-like, “Yeah, I could have come up with that.”
Pat Oliphant died yesterday at 90, and this was a moment when all of my colleagues were all texting and calling each other about it.
The utter brutality of his work, combined with his dead-on illustration ability, made him the pre-eminent editorial cartoonist. Pat was heavily influenced by Scarfe, Searle, Low, and Illingworth. Later in his career he simply just decided to draw mostly like Illingworth, as no one was checking or cared. But hey…
Pat was a master of illustration. I can still recall a rollercoaster drawing he did. I don’t remember the idea so much as the way he drew the tracks, tilted to suggest better perspective. He did beautiful, ornate interiors. His buildings were unparalleled. Banisters, darkened entryways, staircases—you name it…
Fellow Australian emigrant Jason Chatfield on Pat:
Here’s my favourite measure of his influence, better than the Pulitzer, better than the seven NCS Editorial Cartoon Awards, better than the two Reubens or the Thomas Nast Prize: at one point Pat started using DuoShade board, a chemically treated paper that produced textured grey backgrounds. Nearly every political cartoonist in America immediately did the same. When he dropped it in the early 80s, the company’s sales collapsed.
That is influence. Not applause. Not likes. An entire industry buying the paper you buy, then abandoning it the moment you do, like starlings.
He was, and I will not be taking questions, the finest draftsman who ever worked in this game. Alongside names like Thomas Nast, he sits in the very small club of cartoonists who changed what the job was.
Jason mentioned Nick Galifianakis‘ tribute to Oliphant at the 2023 National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards. Here is a video of that.
Andrews McMeel/GoComics has an archive of Pat Oliphant cartoons dating back to 1980 for our enjoyment.
The Daily Cartoonist has an aggregration of newspaper obituaries which has been updated today.
About those newspaper obituaries Ward Sutton has this to say:
If “A Savage Art: The Life & Cartoons of Pat Oliphant” come to your area you are encouraged to see it.
There will certainly be more tributes coming over the next days and weeks
and I apologize for those tributes I have missed.
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