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    Scarfe's poison pen...     Selected works...     Scarfe on the web...
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    Scarfe's poison pen

    The savage pen of Mr Scarfe rips, zigzags and stabs at the page, carving
    out grotesque caricatures of politicians, professionals and nobility. Borne
    on the crest of the new wave of Satirists from the 1960s, Scarfe turns ink
    into a deadly weapon with his dead-eye character assassination. Contrary
    to the wickedness on display in his work, he actually comes across in
    interviews as a most jovial, likable fellow. But put a pen in his hand...

    For much of his childhood Scarfe was confined to bed with chronic asthma.
    He turned to drawing to occupy his time and exorcise his fears, and when
    he was nineteen his talent enabled him to garner a brief spell with an advertising
    agency, before he became a freelance artist for hire. In the 60s his work featured
    regularly in Punch, Private Eye, and The Evening Standard. His flaming pen
    quickly earned him notoriety, and still does of course, thirty years later. But
    Scarfe's artistic endeavours have taken him off the printed page and into even
    grander dimensions.

    Scarfe has collaborated with the legendary Pink Floyd. His drawings and
    concepts were the central device behind 'The Wall' concert tour and later film,
    with featured his astounding animation of Judge Arse, Teacher grinding his
    kids through the mincer, and those unforgettable goose-stepping Hammers. 
    His apparitions were also transformed into giant inflatable stage props and
    scenery. And he's gone further. He's stage designed for operatic versions of
    'Fantastic Mr Fox', 'The Magic Flute' and 'Orpheus In The Underworld' and
    The English National Ballet's 'Nutcracker'. And he's even worked for Disney.
    Though too often dissipated in their final mousified form, Scarfe's original
    designs for the film 'Hercules' are - well - legendary creations.

    During the Millennium celebrations, Scarfe received a commission from
    the team constructing the Dome in Greenwich. The result, six fantastic
    figures depicting 'British-ness' including a vomiting television (British
    Culture) and white leather graffiti-sprayed 'boot' figure (British Humour).
    As Scarfe says of his employment:

      'There was a danger, perhaps, of it all becoming rather
      self-congratulatory - you know, we the British are wonderful.
      So I was brought in to say: yes, we the British are great, BUT...'

    Gerald Scarfe remains happily married to actress-come-party-cake-designer
    extraordinaire Jane Asher. His wicked work is on show every other day in the
    endless tv reruns of 'Yes, Minister' and 'Yes, Prime Minister' (he animated
    the titles), and every week in the pages of The Sunday Times, wherein he
    savages the political debacles of  the world with undiluted passion and ne'er
    an ounce of mercy. In November 2001 The University Of Liverpool granted him
    an Honourary Doctorate Of Law. And then, in October 2003, an exhibition of
    his caricatures was launched at the prestigious National Portrait Gallery in
    London - proof again, if it were ever needed, that Scarfe's satirical sideswipes 
    are the stuff of High Art.

    Mr Scarfe truly, we are worms. We are not worthy...