Fredericton art gallery to feature Michael de Adder’s cartoons

FREDERICTON – The work of one of Canada’s foremost political cartoonists will move from newspapers and online news sites to a more stately platform in Fredericton next month.

The Beaverbrook Art Gallery has launched an exhibit of Michael de Adder’s work, with a focus on exploring cartoons as a “serious art form.”

Born in Moncton, de Adder honed his cartooning skills while taking art classes at Riverview High School, and later while studying fine art at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B.

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Now based in Halifax, de Adder’s work regularly appears in the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the largest daily newspaper in Atlantic Canada.

The gallery notes that his talent for caricature and stinging wit have sometimes stirred controversy.

“It is human nature to make fun or complain about those in power, and that is why political cartoonists exist,” the gallery said in a news release.

“It’s a hard way to make a living, however, and when you are successful, you make enemies … Controversy goes hand-in-hand with being an editorial cartoonist and de Adder has had his share of stirring up the pot.”

De Adder’s cartoon depicting the election of Pope Benedict remained unpublished because an editor deemed it too controversial. But the drawing won an Association of American Editorial Cartoonists award for the best cartoon killed by an editor in 2006.

However, the gallery noted that with the demise of many daily newspapers in recent years, the role of the political cartoonist is under threat.

“As fewer people sit down each morning with a coffee and the newspaper, what does this mean for editorial cartoonists like Michael de Adder who continue to raise important questions about our society?”

The retrospective survey of de Adder’s art will be on display between June 4 and Sept. 18.