Film Trust Blog

Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University

10 January - 13 February 2008
10am - 9pm Monday to Saturday
Free admission www.anglia.ac.uk/searle

Ronald Searle has been described as the greatest graphic artist of our time. His distinctive brand of visual commentary and satire has been familiar to generations through seven decades of continuous output. Born in Cambridge in 1920, Searle attended Cambridge School of Art from 1936- 1939. He said of this time, ‘At the Cambridge School of Art it was drummed into us that we should not move, eat, drink or sleep without a sketchbook in the hand. Consequently, the habit of looking and drawing became as natural as breathing.’

His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of war. He was captured by the Japanese and spent much of the war as a prisoner. During this time he secretly produced a body of drawings that record in graphic detail the misery and degradation of this experience. The drawings are now held at the Imperial War Museum.

After the war, Searle forged a highly successful career as a humorous artist whose range would span the hugely successful St Trinian’s characters (recently revisited in the new film with Rupert Everett, Colin Firth and Russell Brand), gritty documentary/reportage drawing to the hard-hitting political comment for which he would most wish to be remembered.

Since the early 1960s Ronald Searle has lived in France, where he has received numerous awards for his work and been honoured with major retrospective exhibitions of his work. This exhibition is a tribute to Cambridge School of Art’s greatest living alumnus.

Look out for some special screenings at the Arts Picturehouse to complement this exhibition.