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Ming and Admirers

Artist Harry Reade (1927-1998) (Australian, 1927 - 1998)

Subject or historical figure Sir Robert Gordon Menzies (1894-1978)

Datec 1958

Object number00018809

NameCartoon

MediumInk on paper

DimensionsOverall: 230 x 175 mm, 0.002 kg
Sheet: 230 x 175 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from C & P Millward Studio

Terms

DescriptionCartoon by Harry Reade titled "Ming and admirers". Illustration depicts a caricature of Sir Robert Menzies smoking a cigar and a group of women in background.HistoryHarry Reade had always wanted to be a cartoonist but to use his work to "do something" worthy with them. With his working class background and Communist sympathies, he felt he "could fire cartoons like bullets in the front line. I used to get a kick out of, you know, up in the coal mines they'd get one of my cartoons and cut it out and stick it up." Reade published his work in the Communist Party of Australia’s' (CPA) newspaper, Tribune, using his own experiences as a wharf worker as influence. It is understood that Reade's political work came under investigation by ASIO who compiled a file on him, his cartoons also appearing in the Eureka Youth League's newspaper. Of his political cartoons, Reade made no apologies saying, "If any of them helped to save a miners job, or a steelworker’s eyes and hands, or helped to move people to reject McCarthyism and atomic war, I am well satisfied."