American Satire: Humor in The New Yorker

April 20 - May 27 , 2007
Thursdays 4-7 pm, Fridays and Saturdays 1-7 pm

SUF Art Gallery’s latest exhibit opening to a large crowd and lots of laughs on Thursday, April 19. American Satire: Humor in The New Yorker attracted a diverse group of Florentine residents and students to its opening reception where they were treated to a preview of the cartoons selected by curator David L. Prince.

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Founded in 1925, The New Yorker magazine has played a fundamental role in the development of American satire. With a subscription of close to one-million readers, the titular focus of the magazine has not restricted its readership which reaches throughout the United States as well as abroad. Over the last eighty years The New Yorker has consolidated a superlative reputation for its reportage, essays, fiction, poetry, criticism and—of course—cartoons, becoming one of American’s most important cultural institutions.

Syracuse University in Florence, in collaboration with Syracuse University Art Collections (Syracuse, NY) is excited to present the exhibit American Satire: Humor in The New Yorker. This exhibit displays thirty-eight cartoons created by the The New Yorker’s most prolific artist, Alan Dunn, whose satire epitomizes the humor of the magazine. Many of these images examine the relationship between Americans and European cultures, especially that of Italy. Dunn’s social satires often illustrate American tourists’ provincial nature and myopic sense of superiority, but do so with a “titillating feather that reminds us that we do not act as we speak or think…”, according to Dunn’s own words.

The illustrated weekly was the brainchild of Harold Ross, an editor of mass-market weeklies who had a talent for entrepreneurship. He started The New Yorker in 1925 as a humorous literary magazine catering to affluent, educated urbanites. His insistence on a publication with sophisticated articles, drawings and cartoons permanently affected American topical humor. American Satire: Humor in The New Yorker showcases the particular brand of social satire which has made the magazine famous and it provides a humorous look at intercultural exchange between the USA and Europe.