Thursday, January 5, 2012

"I know more about art than you do, so I'll tell you what to like."

In September 2009, this classic original cartoon art by Barney Tobey was sold on eBay. It had been first published in The New Yorker on May 21, 1966, and was reprinted in The New Yorker Album of Art and Artists (1970). It appeared too in the artist's collection B. Tobey of The New Yorker (1983). It serves as the lead cartoon in The Museum of Modern Art Book of Cartoons (2008). It might very well have been collected in other books as well. As cartoons on the subject of art go, this one is pretty much perfect, and surely one of Tobey's best.

"I know more about art than you do, so I'll tell you what to like."
Barney Tobey
Original artwork
The New Yorker, May 21, 1966


Barney Tobey's signature


Hand-written caption

Verso


"I know more about art than you do, so I'll tell you what to like."
Barney Tobey
The New Yorker, May 21, 1966








J
"I know more about art than you do, so I'll tell you what to like."
Barney Tobey
The New Yorker, May 21, 1966








January 18, 2021 Update:  This post has been modified to reflect that the cartoon was collected in B. Tobey of The New Yorker (1983).




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5 comments:

  1. I found the cartoon at the condenast art store
    (by googling the title)because I was dying of curiosity. It's sweet. The know-it-all girl kind of reminds me of myself at times, my younger siblings have given me that title. Little do they know....... :)

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  2. Hi, Leo. Sorry you had to go all the way to the Conde Nast Store to see this little gem. It should be readily visible here now. To your own observations, I might add that this cartoon is particularly humbling to those of us who presume to write blog posts about art!

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  3. Yeah, it was a long hard journey to Conde Nast. :) Nice to see you got the cartoon up. At first I thought I was missing something, kept trying to click on the shadowy background, thinking it was the some kind of over my head avant garde thing. And, if it's any consolation, you have never come across as presumptuous to me.

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  4. Thanks, Leocadia! I really must try the avant-garde thing one of these days!

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  5. I love the caption. Didn't everyone have an art teacher like that? The trouble is, it's just too tempting to 'share' ones prejudices. You said it was sold on Ebay...did you bid for it?

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