The featured cartoonists include Daryl Cagle (USA), Pavel Reisenauer (CR), Martin Shooty Šútovec (Slovakia), Andrzej Mleczko (Poland) and Czaba Varga (Hungary).
The exhibition will be held at the American Center till March 15, then will travel to other towns and cities in the Central European region (Hradec Králové, Olomouc and Brno in the Czech Republic, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Katowice and Krakow in Poland, Budapest, Miskolc and Debrecen in Hungary).
By the mid-19th century editorial cartoons had become regular features in American newspapers, and were soon followed by sports cartoons and humorous cartoons. Notable editorial cartoons include Benjamin Franklin’s "Join, or Die" (1754), on the need for unity in the American colonies.
The effect of political cartoons on public opinion was amply demonstrated in the elections of 1871 and 1873, when the power of Tammany Hall was broken and Boss Tweed imprisoned largely through the efforts of Thomas Nast and his cartoons for Harper’s Weekly. Among his notable works were the creation of the modern version of Santa Claus, and Uncle Sam (the male personification of the American people), as well as the political symbols of both major United States political parties: the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey.
In 1922 the first Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning was won by Rollin Kirby of the New York World. Other noted political cartoonists include John T. McCutcheon, C. D. Batchelor, Jacob Burck, Bill Mauldin , Rube Goldberg, Tom Little, Patrick Oliphant, and Herblock (Herbert Block).
