Permalink

Ronald Searle at 90

COVER_585x350_687355a.jpg

One of the greats, Ronald Searle, turns 90 today. Searle’s unmistakable and influential pen line has decorated countless books and magazines. At 90 years old, the drawings still flow from his hand in his studio in the south of France. Here’s a new interview conducted to celebrate the milestone:

Your take-home quote from the interview: “The moment it is successfull, kill it.”

Oh how I wish I could visit the exhibit of Searle’s work that opens today at The Cartoon Museum in London. And even then, Searle’s complete archive of sketchbooks, drawings, and his personal library, will find a home in the Wilhelm-Busch Museum in Hanover, Germany.

For more, you can’t go wrong with the brilliant and image-rich blog, the Ronald Searle Tribute Blog, and our own posts tagged Ronald Searle here on Drawn!.

Richard Thompson, whose own work shows the undeniable influence of Searle’s, has some nice things to say on the occasion, and shares a link to another recent interview.

searle-lines.jpg

searle.jpg

trinians.jpg

  • An Admirer

    That was fantastic! Happy Birthday Mr. Searle!

  • http://www.matthewcravenillustration.com/ Matt

    One of the greats – couldn't agree more. I will definitely pay the exhibition a visit.

  • http://www.antjeherzog.de/ Antje

    Wow, I am very excited. Thanks for this interview. I am actually lucky to live in Germany, and I will visit his archive in Hannover in the Wilhelm-Busch-Museum (another great illustrator btw)

  • http://remou.myopenid.com/ remou

    I have loved your work, Mr Searle, since I was a small girl, many years ago. Thank you.

  • discountoilpaintings

    This is a beautiful artwork. thanks for posting this one, i really love this artwork.

  • http://www.carlosgardemartin.co.uk/ Carlos Garde-Martin

    Happy Birthday Mr Searle a true legend, and an inspiration to so many.

  • http://www.bigtallken.com/ Big Tall Ken

    I have two of his books and love his unique style and ideas. I hope I will be as alert, active and creative as he is at 90!

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/harryharrisonillos/ Harry Harrison

    Happy Birthday Ronald. Still the Main Man!

  • Red Skelington

    Happy birthday indeed – I had my 'drawing for the graphic novel' course in the London Cartoon Museum last night & had a quick walk through the exhibition and was quite literally dumb-struck – really quite incredible & suspect I'm going to be revisiting an awful lot.

    Extremely hard to go upstairs & draw after looking at Searle's work, though. Not good for one's self-confidence but glorious for the soul, so on the whole a win, I suspect

  • billcarman

    Thank you for this. Always good to have a reminder of why we do this and our highest common denominator. Is there even such thing as a highest common denominator? Thank You Mr. Searle!

  • ed59803

    the the amount of emontion and the expressions on the characters faces

  • Adalwolfa

    I haven't seen a lot of good creative talent lately. Cartooning is the way YOU interprate the world. Most cartoonists overuse allusions and satire . To master cartooning one has to have formed his/her own veiw on life- while evenly juggling out allusion and satire. Veary few have captured the art of cartooning. Mr. Searle, you have grasped ahold of a fabulous illistration-ing carrer in which you exceed the limits of art making beauty.
    Many may not agree about your work being “beautiful” however, it ids amazing amoung many exstents

  • http://www.stenvert.co.za yuk

    Genius! Been a fan my whole life! An inspiration for any artist of any age.