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Rude Britannia: British Comic Art At Tate Britain

So this is where I'll be taking the kids this weekend. Tate Britain, normally the more staid, less exciting, stuck-in-its-ways elder brother to Tate Modern, is running an exhibition on the more bawdy side of British comic art. From Hogarth to Scarfe, from Punch to Viz Comic, from Spitting Image to David Shrigley.

The first room, British Comic Art, explores the British comic from the seventeenth century to the modern day, from Hogarth to Leo Baxendale to David Shrigley. The second, Social Satire And The Grotesque, curated by Viz Comic with their Roger Mellie character as tour guide, concentrated on the seventeenth and eighteenth century vicious satire cartoons of the great and the good. The third, Politics, takes on the art of caricature from the eighteenth century to the present day, curated by Gerald Scarfe. The fourth, Bawdy, looks at the ruder taboo breakers, from the traditional saucy British postcards, through the likes of Kenny Everett and Benny Hill. The fifth, The Worship Of Bacchus looks at an enormous work by George Cruikshank warning of the dangers of alcohol, presented by Steve Bell. And the sixth room Absurd looks at the more surreal sides of British comedy from the Alfred Tenniel illustrations of Alice, through the images of Python, curated by contributor Harry Hill.

The kids will love it. Or, at any road, I probably will… the show starts tomorrow and runs until September 5th. Tickets are £10.

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