Ivy Mays

she/her

Archive of the Ordinary

Visual satire assumes it will be understood, yet this assumption is never guaranteed. My research examines four covers by cartoonist Barry Blitt for The New Yorker, analysing how illustrated satire constructed public perception of political figures before and during the Trump era of American politics. Working through a complete digital archive of the magazine's covers, | became particularly interested in how much their effectiveness depends on the cultural knowledge a viewer brings, as well as in the shifting tone of political illustration across different eras.

Barry Blitt, Miss Congeniality, 2016

Barry Blitt, Miss Congeniality, 2016