Influence, I would like to say, has finally met its demise as we all tire of the internet's ability to force our brains to conform. We finally are striving full force to become inimitable individuals. But, it's a tale as old as time, where there is something worthy of notice, there is something worth copying. Driehaus Museum’s summer exhibit, Ink and Outrage: 18th-Century Satirical Prints in London & Dublin (open until September 13), explores this very notion. The exhibit, spread throughout the top floors of the restored mansion, looks at 18th century satirical prints from London and Dublin, the plagiarism loophole that made it all legal between printmakers, and how we have been telling essentially the same jokes and fighting the same fights for centuries.
Ink & Outrage explores the wit and painstaking artistry of the era to create such prints, highlighting the works by English caricaturists James Gillray (1765-1815) and Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) and many more. The exhibit goes beyond the final product and looks at the inspiration for the prints, the struggles, historical moments that shaped the art, as well as the creation, done by etched plates. The issues portrayed in the exhibit shaped not only London and Ireland but America to this very day. With intellectual property law not being what it is today, Dublin’s artists found the easy way around a weak copyright, and plagiarized almost to the point of identical replicas for many images. Side by side, you can see the small differences of interpretation culture by culture, as well as each artist's personal taste for depiction.
As someone who still very much enjoys The New Yorker's cartoons, the exhibit proved that we have all been laughing—oftentimes at our own expense—for quite some time. The prints on display from the Georgian Era depict images poking fun at the rich, exploring body image, especially the female form, political jabs, and of course the off-color depictions of those we view as other. We may have learned (well, most of us), that to take someone's culture, shape, or class into the core of a giggle is extremely off limits; the exhibit highlights these winks between London and Dublin, between the fictional characters that downsize each culture, Paddy and John Bull, and that sometimes we can be in on the joke.
Throughout July and August, Driehaus is hosting multiple events corresponding with the exhibit including:
Ink and Outrage: Songs and Satire
Thursday, July 9, 6-8pm
$35 | Student: $18
Part concert, part lecture, Songs and Satire will reveal shared interests between caricaturists, writers, and composers in 18th-century London and Dublin. Art historian Jeff Nigro will delve into how the imagery in Ink & Outrage: 18th-Century Satirical Prints in London & Dublin functions in its historical context. Soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg and pianist Stephen Alltop will offer musical perspectives with a variety of whimsical and reflective songs, and the favorite of the Georgian parlor, "The Battle of Prague" by František Kocžwara.
Third Wednesday: Music in Motion from Ireland to Chicago
Wednesday, July 15, 6-7pm
Free
The Driehaus Museum presents free music in the Murphy Auditorium every third Wednesday of the month, when the museum is open late. Inspired by the Ink & Outrage exhibit, this program features the interplay of the Irish harp and the accordion. Answering the exaggerated forms of Irish caricature in sound, master musicians Marta Cook and Jimmy Keane animate and transform the tensions that the exhibition's prints seek to manage.
Exploring Satire with The Onion and The New Yorker
Thursday, August 6, 6-7pm
$30
Step into the sharp, subversive world of satire, past and present, in this panel inspired by the Driehaus Museum’s exhibition Ink & Outrage: 18th-Century Satirical Prints in London & Dublin. Using the exhibition as a springboard, writers and contributors from The Onion (head writer Mike Gillis, staff writer Rob Knoll) and The New Yorker (caricaturist Tom Bachtell) will bring the conversation into the present day, exploring how satire is crafted, circulated, and received in today’s fast-moving media landscape. Moderated by Colin Barr of the University of Notre Dame, whose scholarship bridges Irish and English history.
Mad Fashions, Stylish Eccentrics & Those Who Satirized Them
Thursday, August 27, 6-7pm
$20
For some 300 years, cartoonists have cast their satirical lens on fashion, capturing trends at their most absurd. In this visually immersive lecture inspired by Ink & Outrage: 18th-Century Satirical Prints in London & Dublin, Alex Aubry, director of the Fashion Resource Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, explores the role of satire as a visual record of social mores, tastes, and opinions on fashionable dress.
Ink and Outrage is on exhibit at Driehaus Museum, 50 E. Erie St, until September 13. For tickets and more information, visit driehausmuseum.org.
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