Bruce Petty
Encyclopedia
Bruce Petty is one of Australia
’s best known political satirists
and cartoonist
s. He is a regular contributor to Melbourne's The Age
newspaper. He is married to Australian award-winning novelist, Kate Grenville
; they live in Balmain
, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales
.
His intricate images have been described as "doodle-bombs" for their free-associating of links between various ideas, people and institutions. Age journalist Martin Flanagan wrote that Petty "re-invented the world as a vast scribbly machine with interlocking cogs and levers that connected people in wholly logical but unlikely ways."
, Esquire
and Punch
. On his return to Australia, he worked at first for The Bulletin
and The Australian
before joining The Age
in 1976.
In 1976
, he won an Oscar
for his animated film Leisure, although he claimed in 2004 that he had no idea of the statue's whereabouts. "When I got it, the Oscar went to the producer. We got a picture of it, a very nice gold-framed picture." (The Age, 22 June 2004)
He has made a number of other award-winning animated films including "Art", "Australian History", "Hearts and Minds" and "Karl Marx".
Bruce has also created a number of "machine sculptures" with the most famous being a piece known as "Man Environment Machine" (fondly known as the "Petty Machine") that was a feature piece of the Australian Pavilion at World Expo '85 at Tsukuba, Japan.
In 2007, he received the AFI
Best Documentary Director prize for the documentary Global Haywire which he wrote, directed and animated, as well as the Best Documentary Sound prize ; this documentary tries to unravel the global pattern that leads to an understanding of how the world came to be as it is today, and is based on interviews with intellectuals, students and journalists.
Bruce's 2008 book, Petty's Parallel Worlds, is a retrospective collection of editorial cartoons from 1959 to the present, street sketches done on assignment around the world, and etchings.
and Socialist, mentions visiting Nicaragua
and Cuba
in the early 1960s, and feeling the influence of Colin Wilson
's The Outsider
.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
’s best known political satirists
Political satire
Political satire is a significant part of satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where such arguments are expressly...
and cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
s. He is a regular contributor to Melbourne's The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
newspaper. He is married to Australian award-winning novelist, Kate Grenville
Kate Grenville
Kate Grenville is one of Australia's best-known authors. She's published nine novels, a collection of short stories, and four books about the writing process....
; they live in Balmain
Balmain, New South Wales
Balmain is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Balmain is located slightly west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Leichhardt....
, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
.
His intricate images have been described as "doodle-bombs" for their free-associating of links between various ideas, people and institutions. Age journalist Martin Flanagan wrote that Petty "re-invented the world as a vast scribbly machine with interlocking cogs and levers that connected people in wholly logical but unlikely ways."
Work
Petty began working for the Owen Brothers animation studio in Melbourne in 1949, before leaving in 1955 to work overseas with work being published in The New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
and Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
. On his return to Australia, he worked at first for The Bulletin
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
and The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
before joining The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
in 1976.
In 1976
1976 in film
The year 1976 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film...
, he won an Oscar
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for his animated film Leisure, although he claimed in 2004 that he had no idea of the statue's whereabouts. "When I got it, the Oscar went to the producer. We got a picture of it, a very nice gold-framed picture." (The Age, 22 June 2004)
He has made a number of other award-winning animated films including "Art", "Australian History", "Hearts and Minds" and "Karl Marx".
Bruce has also created a number of "machine sculptures" with the most famous being a piece known as "Man Environment Machine" (fondly known as the "Petty Machine") that was a feature piece of the Australian Pavilion at World Expo '85 at Tsukuba, Japan.
In 2007, he received the AFI
Australian Film Institute
The Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...
Best Documentary Director prize for the documentary Global Haywire which he wrote, directed and animated, as well as the Best Documentary Sound prize ; this documentary tries to unravel the global pattern that leads to an understanding of how the world came to be as it is today, and is based on interviews with intellectuals, students and journalists.
Bruce's 2008 book, Petty's Parallel Worlds, is a retrospective collection of editorial cartoons from 1959 to the present, street sketches done on assignment around the world, and etchings.
Influences
Petty says in the foreword to Parallel Worlds that he is a humanistHumanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
and Socialist, mentions visiting Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
in the early 1960s, and feeling the influence of Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
Colin Henry Wilson is a prolific English writer who first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson has since written widely on true crime, mysticism and other topics. He prefers calling his philosophy new existentialism or phenomenological existentialism.- Early biography:Born and...
's The Outsider
The Outsider (Colin Wilson)
The Outsider is a non-fiction book by Colin Wilson first published in 1956.Through the works and lives of various artists - including H. G. Wells , Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, T. S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Harley Granville-Barker , Hermann Hesse, T. E...
.
Filmography
- Hearts and Minds (1968)
- Australian History (1971)
- Art (1974)
- Leisure (1976)
- Magic Arts (1978)
- Karl Marx (1979)
- Megalomedia (1983)
- Movers (1986)
- Money (1998)
- The Mad Century (2000)
- Human Contraptions (2002)
- Global Haywire (2007)
Books
- Australian artist in South East Asia / Bruce Petty with introduction by Ronald Searle (1962)
- Petty's Australia fair / Bruce Petty (1967)
- A portfolio of Petty / Bruce Petty (1969)
- The best of Petty / 1968, Ed. Ron Smith
- The Penguin Petty (1972, ISBN 0-14-003639-3)
- Petty's Australia: and how it works / Bruce Petty (1976, ISBN 0-14-070060-9)
- The Petty age / Bruce Petty (1978, ISBN 0-909331-67-7)
- Petty's money book / Bruce Petty (1983, ISBN 0-00-636551-5)
- Women and men / Petty (1986, ISBN 0-04-820029-8)
- Bruce Petty's the absurd machine / Bruce Petty (1997, ISBN 0-14-025554-0)
- Petty's Parallel Worlds Bruce Petty (2008, Ed. Russ Radcliffe, ISBN 978-0-646-49028-1)