ECHOES

Gordon's Cartoon

This is one of Gordon Brewster's cartoons on censorship. It depicts the vulture of immoral literature feasting off the flesh of the Irish citizen.

Now, I am a great person for connections, and in the course of the Gordon Brewster project there have been many. For example, when I first met Gordon's family there were four generations present, from Gordon's daughter down to his great-great-granddaughter. At my recent book launch the cake was cut by Gordon's great-great-granddaughter, sister of the earlier one. It just provided a sense of continuity from Gordon's death (1946) to the book launch (2024), and his rescue from obscurity at the book launch.

There is another, wholly artistic connection between Gordon and today.

Becca is Gordon's great-granddaughter and she's an artist. In a recent challenge in her art group, they were asked to chose an artist and repaint one of that artist's pieces in their their own style. Becca chose Gordon and his cartoon on immoral literature.

Becca's Painting

There is one significant difference between the two depictions. Gordon has concentrated on the evil of immoral literature. Becca, however, sees a greater danger in the banning of books.

This also reminded me of Gordon's tribute to the Dutch cartoonist Raemaekers, where he took one of the latter's cartoons, made a slight amendment, and turned it into a most vicious anti Northern Ireland government cartoon.