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Gerald Scarfe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Gerald Scarfe | |
| Birth name | Gerald Anthony Scarfe |
| Born | June 1, 1936 London, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Field | Editorial cartoon, Drawing, Animation |
| Famous works | The Wall (1982) |
Gerald Anthony Scarfe (born 1 June 1936 in London) is an English cartoonist and illustrator. He is best known for his work with Pink Floyd, particularly The Wall, and as an editorial cartoonist for The Sunday Times and an illustrator for The New Yorker.
He is married to Jane Asher, whom he met in 1971 and married in 1981. They had a daughter in 1974 and two sons in 1981 and 1984.
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Scarfe was born in St John's Wood, London and was severely asthmatic as a child. He spent many of his early years bedridden, and drawing became a means of entertainment as well as a creative outlet. It has been speculated that the grotesque and diseased images that often characterise his work are a result of these experiences. He has himself stated that the irreverence apparent in much of his work can be traced back to “dodgy treatments” and a reliance on incompetent doctors. [1]
After briefly working in advertising, a profession he grew to intensely dislike, Scarfe's early caricatures of public figures were published in satirical magazine Private Eye throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In the mid 1960s he took a job at the Daily Mail following a Dutch auction for his services with the Daily Express. His decision to work for the Daily Mail led to his estrangement from fellow cartoonist Ralph Steadman, alongside whom he had studied art at East Ham Technical College. Soon after, Steadman was commissioned to illustrate Scarfe and produced an image that was half saint and half Superman, but with a disconnected heart.[2] Scarfe spent just a year working for the Daily Mail, during which time he was sent to provide illustrations from the Vietnam War.
Scarfe was approached to work with Pink Floyd after Roger Waters and Nick Mason both saw his animated BBC film A Long Drawn Out Trip. Scarfe's first work for the band was a set of animated short clips used on the Wish You Were Here tour, including a full-length music video for the song "Welcome to the Machine."[3] He also drew the cover illustration for their 1979 album The Wall, and in 1982 worked on the film version of The Wall, although he and Waters fell out with director Alan Parker during the latter stages of editing. As well as the artwork, Scarfe contributed 15 minutes worth of elaborate animation to the film, including a sequence depicting the German bombing campaign over England during World War II, set to the song "Goodbye Blue Sky". He was also involved in the theatrical adaptation, including The Wall Concert in Berlin, where his animations were projected on a vast scale.
He continued to work with Roger Waters when the latter left Pink Floyd, creating the graphics and animation for Waters' solo album The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking (1984) and its supporting tour.
He provided caricatures of Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds (as their respective characters) for the opening and closing sequences of Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. Derek Fowlds reportedly attempted to purchase Scarfe's original sketches, only they were too expensive.
Scarfe was approached to work on the 1997 Disney film Hercules by Ron Clements and John Musker, long time fans of his who had risen to prominence within Disney following the success of The Little Mermaid. Scarfe worked as a conceptual character artist, designing almost all of the characters and then supervising the 900 Disney artists charged with adapting his designs for the film. His work was widely acclaimed.
He was invited to create a sculpture for the Millennium Dome, which was entitled "Self Portrait". The Dome's chief executive PY Gerbeau said "it mirrors what we like - and what we don't - about our nation".[4]
Scarfe has designed sets for a number of operatic productions, including an adaptation of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox. Following a chance meeting at a BBC prom he worked with Peter Hall on his version of Mozart's The Magic Flute, which drew critical acclaim. He is lined up to provide animation for Jim Steinman's Bat out of Hell, a stage show featuring Steinman's music.[5]
On November 22, 2005 the United Kingdom's Press Gazette named its 40 most influential journalists, and included Scarfe alongside just two other cartoonists, Carl Giles, and Matt Pritchett [6]
Scarfe was awarded Cartoonist of the Year at the British Press Awards 2006.
- ^ Gerald Scarfe interview at The Beaver Online
- ^ Ralph Steadman biography at the British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent
- ^ "A Long Drawn-Out Trip: An Interview with Gerald Scarfe" by Michael Simone Reprinted from REG Magazine, Issue #22
- ^ BBC News Tour the Dome
- ^ http://jimsteinman.blogspot.com/ entry incorrectly dated July 20, 06: 603PM. It was actually posted 20 Oct 2006.
- ^ Media Bulletin