Humour Art in Seoul - Korea -

In February 2008 there was the 1th Seoul exhibition of the Humour Art Group. This group is made up of 6 professional Korean cartoonists and illustrators: Kang Tae-Young, Kim Yun-Jo, Nam Myeong-Lae, Lee Jong-Gyun, Oh Young-Sik and Jung In-Sung. Their goal is to show Korean public some different ways of making cartoons and develop cartoon art in Korea. Cartoon exhibitions are still very rare and the artists want to promote the art of cartoon in their country. An international theme 'Environmental Pollution' and 'Global Warming' could help to gain interest from all over the world. Graphic humour can be a strong weapon to fight for a peaceful and non-polluted world.


The full-colored catalogue of this exhibition (40 pages) is made with skill and is an attractive appearance. The 6 Korean artists present their cartoons. For this first exhibiton, they also invited some professional cartoonists to support the action and theme of the Art Group: Alessandro Gatto (Italy), Jurij Kosobukin (Ukraine), Marlene Pohle, Veleri Kurtu(Germany), Muhittin Koroglu (Turkey), Marcin Bondarowicz, Pawel Kuczynski (Poland), Rumen Dragostinov (Bulgaria), Mihail Zlatkovsky (Russia), Julian Pena-Pai (Romania), Vladimir Kazanevsky (Ukraine), Musa Gumus (Turkey).

I express my gratitude to mr Young Sik Oh, President General of Humour Art, for his kind permission and contribution to this article.
I hope the Humour Art Group will succeed and I wish them all the best and a great future in making cartoons.

Learn more:
Humour Art Cartoon Blog
[Cartoonbook file of the catalogue]

Some pics of the exhibition.




The 6 artists:

Contempory Cartoon of Azerbaijan

When you are collecting cartoonbooks from all over the world, don't forget Azerbaijan! Yes, probably you haven't heard much of this country, as I did before, ... but you should have!

Rudy Gheysens, president of the ECC Kruishoutem has good contacts with Azerbaijan cartoonists. When he gave me this nice book of Contempory Cartoon of Azerbaijan (by Bayram Hajizadeh), I understand why he loves this countries' cartoons and its dedicated cartoonists.
I fully agree with Peter Nieuwendijk, at that time Secretary General of FECO, when he writes in his introduction word: "I recently read an impressive history about the making of a hundred years cartoons in Azerbaijan by Bayram Hajizadeh. It is a collection of master-pieces! They need no explanation, they speak for themselves. I am very happy to notice tha Azerbaijan Cartoonists take active part in international
cartoon contests and exhibitions. They won already prizes and special awards and have been published in international catalogues many times. Before that I had never heard nor seen cartoons from Azerbaijan cartoonists. Of course my fault...
... This book of Bayram Hajizadeh, which is presented to cartoon lovers, gives us an opportunity of getting acquainted with works and activities of Azerbaijan cartoonists... From now on we all can communicate with our Azerbaijan friends 'cause they speak the international language of humour fluently."

Although the cartoon world is often called a masculin world, I was happy to see that almost one third of the about 58 artist that present their work in the book are female. Good work!

With special thanks to mr. Bayram Hajizadeh, President of Azerbaijan Cartoonists’ Union, President of FECO Group Azerbaijan

Learn more:
Azercartoon, the Site of the Azerbaijan Cartoonists
Cartoonbook file