World News – AU – SMH and Age’s Wilcox win Political Cartoonist of the Year award for the third time

In a year when terrible news was replaced by terrible news, a political cartoonist’s job is more important than ever.

This is according to the Museum of Australian Democracy, which named Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s Cathy Wilcox this year’s political cartoonist..

Cartoonist Cathy Wilcox, who also won the award in 2009 and 2016, said she was honored to be rewarded for the work she did this year. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

For Wilcox, the year of wildfires, the Coronavirus, and global politics needed a balance between mocking the absurd and shedding light on the ugly..

« We are often here to shine a light or to indicate some kind of foolishness, but there are always dangerous things that happen that should not be allowed away from being considered silly, » she said.

“It’s a way of saying,” Don’t become insensitive to this frequent feeling of drunkenness from all the atrocity; No, your first instinct is correct, it’s unacceptable.

The Nobel Prize-winning immunologist, Professor Peter Doherty, who was one of the external judges for this year’s prize, said that there are similarities between the work he did as a scientist and that of the cartoonists, in that they « do their best to express the truth. ».

« I always had the feeling that part of the cartoonist’s job in an open democracy was to provoke us, and it might have made us a bit angry, that we suddenly suspect a stuck position, some dogmatism an idea of ​​how things are going or should be..

The Wilcox Prize was announced Friday at the Museum of Australian Democracy in the Old Parliament House. Also on Friday, the Beyond the Lines exhibition of political cartoons of the year begins, and two of Wilcox’s cartoons were selected among the curator’s top 10 drawings.. .

This cartoon is The New Casual, of a death arriving at the nursing home for a casual work shift and impunity, and one of US President Donald Trump says he can « shoot 230,000 people on Fifth Avenue and I’m not going to lose. » Which voters? « .

Director of the Museum of Australian Democracy, Daryl Karp, said Wilcox was able to find angles influencing the bushfire disaster and exploit coronavirus-focused humor during the pandemic..

« Nothing in 2020 » is as usual « . Free and accurate media have never looked more important, and we didn’t need cartoonists so much.  ».

Wilcox, who also won the award in 2009 and 2016, said she was honored to receive the award for the work she did this year.

“I feel like it has been a difficult year for me, and I feel proud and grateful that they noticed it,” she said.

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Rachel Clone is a federal political reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, covering health.

Political Cartoons