Ronald Searle: The Coming of the Great Cat God

The Coming of the Great Cat God is a 1968 color lithograph by Ronald Searle. It combines his popular cat imagery with one of those calamitous urban landscapes he was rendering at the time. A colossal smiling cat radiating garish colored light towers over the imposing cityscape and extends its right front paw downward. Terrified men in business suits jump from buildings and flee from the cat. It is not unusual for Searle's lithographs of this period to contrast elements from nature with an overbuilt urban landscape featuring panic-stricken inhabitants.

The Coming of the Great Cat God
Ronald Searle
Original lithograph no. 86/95, 1968
Gurlitt catalogue no. 34
EE cat. no. 94

Ronald Searle
Swann Galleries listing ended May 22, 2014

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/SEARLE-RONALD-The-Coming-of-the-Great-Cat-God-Color-lithogra?saleno=2351&lotNo=250&refNo=689681

The 1971 Galerie Wolfgang Gurlitt catalogue lists the four-color lithograph (no. 34) and two black-and-white exhibition posters (nos. 35 and 36) from 1968 made from the same plate.

The Gurlitt catalogue does not list a promotional poster for Editions Empreinte. The poster does not have Searle's signature or his distinctive writing, but it does attribute copyright to him in small printing at the bottom:

Ronald Searle
Quinn's Auction Galleries listing ended December 20, 2022

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/roland-searle-lithograph-poster-1968-237-c-55d482cafe?objectID=176250941&algIndex=upcoming_lots_prod&queryID=5f78cbb9aa93f70f04630c19a515ee67

The color lithograph was included in Ronald Searle's Big Fat Cat Book (1982):

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Ronald Searle Roller Skater

Right now there's a lot of interest in the reportage work of Ronald Searle. An exhibition of the artist's original illustrations for Holiday magazine and for the American market in general is slated to open this November in San Francisco and should be brilliant. To help raise funds for this project, including shipping vintage Searle illustrations to San Francisco and producing an exhibition catalogue, many prominent animators have contributed original works of art inspired by Searle. There are currently multiple such works listed on eBay as well as a couple of German fountain pens that belonged to Searle himself and were donated to the auction by his estate.

There was, of course, a whimsical side to Searle's artwork as well. For example, this lithograph of an uninhibited roller skater is from the 1970 suite Meilleurs Voeux [Best Wishes] published by Michel Cassé, Paris. The suite consisted of five small lithographs trimmed from the usual 50 x 65 cm sheet and published in a numbered edition of 200 for the Galerie La Pochade in Paris. An additional seven were set aside for the printer and there were ten artist's proofs numbered in Roman numerals. The set of lithographs is Gurlitt no. 72 in the catalogue which erroneously gives the date of 1971 for the suite. The black-and-white 1971 catalogue illustrations as well as this eBay listing both support the 1970 date.

Ronald Searle, Meilleurs Voeux, 1970, 106/200, Gurlitt (1971) No. 72 (5)

Ronald Searle, Meilleurs Voeux, 1970, 106/200, Gurlitt (1971) No. 72 (5)

Ronald Searle Signature

Ronald Searle, Meilleurs Voeux, 1970, 106/200, Gurlitt (1971) No. 72 (5) Detail

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ronald-Searle-original-lithograph-1970-numbered-hand-signed-in-pencil-/111035564865?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&nma=true&si=VJo29%252F7WbHpl1SY9gWmnl4%252FkT80%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Ronald Searle, Meilleurs Voeux, 1970, 106/200, Gurlitt (1971) No. 72 (5)

Note:  All the animators' original artwork and other items up for bidding on eBay to raise funds for the "Searle in America" exhibition can be viewed here.

The Searle in America blog is here.

Perpetua, the Ronald Searle tribute blog, is here.

My own Searle posts are all here.

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Ronald Searle's Painting Pig

Ronald Searle, Ausstellung Ronald Searle 11.Oktober - 10.November 1973, Galerie Wolfgang Gurlitt, München. Original Art for Poster. Private Collection.

For a while in the 1960's, Ronald Searle was represented regularly by several galleries in different European cities. Galerie La Pochade showed his work in Paris starting in 1966. The same year, Wolfgang Gurlitt started showing his work in Linz at his Neue Galerie, and the following year in Munich at Galerie Wolfgang Gurlitt. According to John Locke, Searle's American agent at the time, his relationship with the Galerie La Pochade ended in a dispute over some $20,000 they owed him. This would have been around 1971 or later.

The Gurlitt gallery published a catalogue of Searle's prints in 1971 and it remains the only authoritative source on Searle's lithographs from 1966 to 1971. They were still exhibiting his work in  the fall of 1973 when this extraordinary ink illustration was created for an exhibition poster. I believe this is unusual. Typically Searle would have taken a contemporary image he was already working on with his lithographer, usually Michel Cassé in Paris. When the lithograph was completed, he would create a promotional poster version, sometimes changing the orientation and always adding his unmistakeable lettering. The poster might be issued in an edition of anywhere from 25 to 100, generally unsigned and unnumbered, although on occasion in a large run the first 25 might be signed and numbered, and sometimes there were an additional ten artist's proofs identified with roman numerals. This time, though, he created an original drawing specifically for the exhibition poster and, as usual, it is extraordinary.







Ronald Searle, Ausstellung Ronald Searle 11.Oktober - 10.November 1973, Galerie Wolfgang Gurlitt, München. Exhibition Poster.

http://ronaldsearle.blogspot.com/2013/03/pigs.html

Ronald Searle, Ausstellung Ronald Searle 11.Oktober - 10.November 1973, Galerie Wolfgang Gurlitt, München. Original Art for Poster. Private Collection.

Note:  Perpetua, Matt Jones's indispensable Ronald Searle tribute blog, recently published a very exhaustive post on Searle's pigs. Go the whole hog and be sure not to miss it.

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