Popular American political cartoonist Daryl Cagle said Ukraine lacks metaphors to help him portray the country and its people, according to an interview he gave the Kyiv Post on May 20 at an outdoor exhibition of his works in Kyiv's Podil district.
So he draws Ukrainians as regular people, “what am I supposed to do,” Cagle asked rhetorically.
“I have to draw things that don’t require explanation. I don’t have the words to explain them,” Cagle said, adding he doesn’t draw the Ukrainian president for American audiences “because they don’t know who he is.”
Daryl Cagle drew advertisements before starting Cagle Cartoons in 2001 that currently distributes works by dozens of editorial cartoonists to more than 850 subscribers in the U.S. and around the world. It includes over half of America’s daily newspapers.
A woman looks at the paintings of political cartoonists.
One metaphor he chose for Ukraine was by drawing a peasant woman for a cartoon in which Russian President Vladimir Putin is depicted abusing her.
“I picked a Ukrainian traditional dress and I gave her blonde hair with braids because you have a prime minister with blonde hair,” he said. “But that’s why I picked her, there are no symbols for Ukraine that Americans would know, you have to come up with something”, Cagle said.
Otherwise, Putin is the villain for a cartoonist. He says he draws him all the time, so do the all the other cartoonists. Cagle thinks that Putin is very recognizable and doesn’t need explanation.
Still, cartoonist says American cartoons are hard to sell outside of the U.S. and cartoons from outside of America are hard to sell in America. He thinks there should be a universal language.
But there were two periods when cartoonists focused on Ukraine: when Russia invaded Ukraine and when flight MH17 was downed in Ukraine. Otherwise, Cagle said one won’t see cartoons about the country.
The political cartoon show presents works by cartoonists from the Czech Republic, Georgia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine and the U.S. The show has been exhibited in 19 cities since 2010
International Exhibition of Political Cartoons. Kontraktova Square, all day. Through June 30. Free admission.
