AASLH Member Since 2003
The Philadelphia History Museum announces the extension of the exhibition AUTHentic Philly: Tony Auth’s Cartoons of Philadelphia, featuring over 40 drawings on paper and digital works by Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Tony Auth.
Auth’s cartoons have influenced public opinion locally, nationally and internationally for more than 40 years. On view now in the Museum’s Played in Philadelphia gallery through April 2014, the exhibition includes samples of the artist’s editorial drawings from 1972 to the present that document the political and cultural landscape of the Philadelphia region. A video featuring commentary by the artist is also stationed in the gallery.
“The Museum is pleased to extend the time and reach of this inspirational and relatable exhibition,” stated Museum Executive Director and CEO Charles Croce. “Since the exhibition opened in October 2013, nearly 3,000 visitors, both national and international have experienced Auth’s work, which illustrates Philadelphia’s social and political history set against the national commentary of the time.”
On view are drawings chronicling the city’s mayors and political figures, unions, education system, housing, poverty, and taxes. The exhibition also features the artist’s drawing table which changes daily to feature Auth’s current medium of digital artistry. Visitors can also purchase, The Art of Tony Auth To Stir: Inform and Inflame, the book that features a brief history of the artist and his cartoons of both a national and local scope.
An Ohio native who grew up in Los Angeles, Tony Auth first put his pen to paper as a child to soothe troubling times. An illness caused him to be bedridden in his youth, so his cartoons, inspired by the adventure heroes of the time, were his escape. Auth graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles and continued to master his creativity through various jobs before spending over four decades at The Philadelphia Inquirer as an editorial cartoonist. He won the paper’s first Pulitzer Prize in 1976.
The exhibition was curated by David Leopold and organized by the James A. Michener Museum, located in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
About The Philadelphia History Museum
Reopened to the public in September 2012 with the completion of a total interior renovation, the Philadelphia History Museum unveiled redesigned galleries to showcase its outstanding collection of historical objects, art, and artifacts. The Museum, founded by City Ordinance in 1938 to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution in Philadelphia, is housed in an historic 1826 building at 15 South 7th Street, designed by John Haviland as the original home of the Franklin Institute.
The Museum provides historical context for issues of contemporary urban life using its premier collection of over 100,000 objects, paintings, and photographs in exhibitions, programs, and interactive media. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.philadelphiahistory.org.
About James A. Michener Museum
The James A. Michener Art Museum collects, preserves, interprets and exhibits American art, with a focus on art of the Bucks County region. The museum presents changing exhibitions that explore a variety of artistic expressions, and offers a diverse program of educational activities that seeks to develop a lifelong involvement in the arts as well as nurture a wide range of audiences. We also seek to educate our community about nationally and internationally known Bucks County artists of all creative disciplines.
The James A. Michener Art Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums. For more information, visit www.michenermuseum.org.
Media Contact:
Mary-Anne Smith Harris
Director of Development and Marketing Communications
215.685.4829/267.229.2348
[email protected]
