GILES : Drawn to Suffolk

8 November 2008 – 17 January 2009

Popular Cartoonist’s Work Comes Home

Ipswich Borough Council’s Town Hall Galleries is pleased to host the work of local hero, cartoonist Giles with a comprehensive display of Giles cartoons and relating objects, focusing on Ipswich and the locality.

Ronald "Carl" Giles was a national institution. He chronicled this country's history and society through fifty years of change from the late ’30’s until the mid 90’s. As one of the most well known and highly acclaimed cartoonists of the last century, Giles worked for the leading newspapers Daily Express and Sunday Express through which he introduced many recognisable characters for people’s entertainment; including that of the Royal Family’s. With many original characters (some of which he based on people he had met e.g. Mr Chalk who taught him in his youth), his greatest creation was The Family, an instantly recognisable cast of characters, overwhelmed by a horde of mischievous children but always under the stern control of the immortal Grandma. Giles continued to amuse the Daily Express readership until 1989 but continued working for the Sunday Express until 1991.

Throughout the length of his London based career Giles resided just outside Ipswich preferring the town and the Suffolk countryside, where he found it easier to work than the bustle of London. GILES: Drawn to Suffolk takes its focus from Giles’ fondness of the locality, presenting works that illustrate the town’s places and people together with ephemera from his studio which includes, for example, his drawing board and chair, drawing equipment, a collection of constabulary helmets (illustrated in one of the cartoons) and photographs.

The majority of material in this exhibition comes from the British Cartoon Archive (BCA) at the University of Kent. In 2005 the Giles Cartoon Trustees, appointed by Giles under his will, donated his entire archive to the BCA. This huge collection of objects had been in storage since the cartoonist’s death in 1995, and was his own private collection, unseen and unused by outsiders. The collection arrived at the BCA in two furniture vans, which held the entire contents of his studio from colour artwork to magazine cuttings, drawing boards to drawing pins, and fan mail to bank statements. Due to the amount and variety it was quickly recognised that additional resources would be required in order to unravel it and make it accessible.

In 2007 the BCA obtained government funding, under the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Digitisation Programme, to catalogue and digitise over 15,000 original Giles cartoons and artwork, as well as over 5,000 items of personal correspondence and objects. These images are being incorporated in a new, updated BCA website www.cartoons.ac.uk that will be freely available. Access to the website will be available at the Town Hall Galleries.

Cataloguing the Giles collection, and researching the exhibition, has uncovered a lot of little-known facts about Giles and his cartoons. Many of these gems have been incorporated into a full colour catalogue available from the Town Hall Galleries. As well as works on loan from the Carl Giles Collection, at The British Cartoon Archive University of Kent there are works from private collections.

This exhibition coincides with a major exhibition at the Cartoon Museum in London Giles - One of the Family (5 November - 8 February 2009) www.cartooncentre.com

To coincide with the Giles exhibition at the Town Hall Galleries, Current Affairs will provide the opportunity for budding cartoonists and satirists to respond to current issues and events.

Giles: Drawn to Suffolk was supported by KLH Architects.

Click here for information about the Giles Family sculpture in Ipswich Town Centre

Click here for information on the 1995 Wolsey Art Gallery exhibition Giles: A Fifty Years Celebration

Click here for the press release

Click here for the invite card