So 24 years ago, I was brought to The New Yorker as art editor to rejuvenate what had by then become a somewhat staid institution and to bring in new artists and to try to bring the magazine from its ivory tower into engaging with its time. And it was just the right thing for me to do because I've always been captivated by how an image can -- a simple drawing -- can cut through the torrent of images that we see every single day. How it can capture a moment, how it can crystallize a social trend or a complex event in a way that a lot of words wouldn't be able to do -- and reduce it to its essence and turn it into a cartoon.
Dakle, prije 24 godine, stigla sam u The New Yorker kao likovni urednik, kako bih pomladila nešto što je do tada postalo nekako ozbiljna institucija te kako bih dovela umjetnike i pokušala spustiti časopis s njegovog uzvišenog postolja kako bi se bavio sadašnjim trenutkom. Bio je to baš pravi posao za mene, jer sam oduvijek bila opčinjena time koliko slika može, jednostavan crtež, može presjeći bujicu slika koje svakodnevno gledamo. Kako može uhvatiti trenutak, kako može izoštriti društveni trend ili specifičan događaj, na način na koji mnogo riječi to ne bi moglo, svede ga na njegovu bit i pretvori u karikaturu.
So I went to the library and I looked at the first cover drawn by Rea Irvin in 1925 -- a dandy looking at a butterfly through his monocle, and we call it Eustace Tilley. And I realized that as the magazine had become known for its in-depth research and long reports, some of the humor had gotten lost along the way, because now often Eustace Tilley was seen as a haughty dandy, but in fact, in 1925, when Rea Irvin first drew this image, he did it as part of a humor magazine to amuse the youth of the era, which was the flappers of the roaring twenties. And in the library, I found the images that really captured the zeitgeist of the Great Depression. And it showed us not just how people dressed or what their cars looked like, but also what made them laugh, what their prejudices were. And you really got a sense of what it felt like to be alive in the '30s.
I tako sam otišla u knjižnicu i vidjela prvu naslovnicu koju je nacrtao Rea Irvin 1925. godine, kicoš koji kroz svoj monokl promatra leptira, a zovemo ga Eustace Tilley. Shvatila sam da, kako je časopis postajao čuven po svom opsežnom istraživanju i dugim reportažama, usput je izgubio i malo svog humora, jer je sada Eustace Tilley često viđen kao oholi kicoš, no, 1925. kada je Rea Irvin prvi puta nacrtao ovu sliku, učinio je to kako bi ona bila dio humorističnog časopisa, kako bi zabavio mlade tog doba, a to su bile šiparice iz burnih '20-ih. A u knjižnici sam pronašla slike koje su zaista uhvatile duh vremena Velike depresije. A to nam je pokazivalo ne samo kako su se ljudi odijevali, ili kako su im izgledali auti, već i što ih je nasmijavalo, koje su im bile predrasude. I zaista ste dobili dojam kakav je bio osjećaj živjeti '30-ih godina.
So I called on contemporary artists, such as Adrian Tomine here. I often call on narrative artists -- cartoonists, children's book authors -- and I give them themes such as, you know, what it's like to be in the subway, or Valentine's Day, and they send me sketches. And once the sketches are approved by the editor, David Remnick, it's a go. And I love the way those images are actually not telling you what to think. But they do make you think, because the artist is actually -- it's almost a puzzle; the artist is drawing the dots, and you, the reader, have to complete the picture. So to get this image on the left by Anita Kunz, or the one on right by Tomer Hanuka, you have to play spot the differences. And it is something that ... It's really exciting to see how the engagement with the reader ... how those images really capture -- play with the stereotypes. But when you get it, it rearranges the stereotypes that are in your head.
Stoga sam pozvala suvremene umjetnike, poput Adriana Tominea ovdje. Često pozivam pripovjedače, karikaturiste, pisce dječjih knjiga i zadajem im teme poput, znate, kakav je osjećaj biti u podzemnoj, ili Valentinovo i oni mi šalju skice. I kada urednik odobri skice, David Remnick, to je to. I sviđa mi se način na koji vam ti prizori, zapravo, ne govore što da mislite. No, tjeraju vas na razmišljanje jer je umjetnik, zapravo ... to je poput zagonetke, umjetnik crta točkice, a vi, čitatelj, morate dovršiti sliku. Kako biste shvatili ovu sliku Anite Kunz slijeva, ili ovu zdesna Tomera Hanuke, morate se igrati zapažanja razlika. A to je nešto što je ... zaista uzbudljivo vidjeti, kako komunikacija s čitateljem ... kako ti prizori zaista hvataju ... poigravaju se stereotipima. Ali kad ih shvatite, tada to utječe na stereotipe koji postoje u vašoj glavi.
But the images don't just have to show people, sometimes it can be a feeling. Right after September 11, I was at a point, like everybody else, where I really didn't know how to deal with what we were going through, and I felt that no image could capture this moment, and I wanted to just do a black cover, like no cover. And I talked to my husband, cartoonist Art Spiegelman, and mentioned to him that I was going to propose that, and he said, "Oh, if you're going to do a black cover, then why don't you do the silhouette of the Twin Towers, black on black?" And I sat down to draw this, and as soon as I saw it, a shiver ran down my spine and I realized that in this refusal to make an image, we had found a way to capture loss and mourning and absence. And it's been a profound thing that I learned in the process -- that sometimes some of the images that say the most do it with the most spare means. And a simple image can speak volumes.
No, slike ne moraju samo prikazivati ljude, nekada to može biti i osjećaj. Odmah nakon 11. rujna, bila sam u stanju, poput svih ostalih, gdje zaista nisam znala kako se nositi s onim kroz što smo prolazili i osjećala sam da nijedna slika ne može uhvatiti taj trenutak, i željela sam samo crnu naslovnicu, kao da nema naslovnice. I razgovarala sam s mužem, on je karikaturist, Art Spiegelman, i spomenula sam mu da ću to predložiti, a on je rekao, "Ako ćeš napraviti crnu naslovnicu, zašto to ne bi bila silueta Blizanaca, crno preko crnog?" Krenula sam to crtati i čim sam to ugledala, kralježnicom su me prošli trnci te sam shvatila, da smo u ovom odbijanju stvaranja prizora, pronašli način kako uhvatiti gubitak, žalovanje i odsustvo. I tijekom ovoga sam naučila nešto istinski duboko, da ponekad neke slike koje govore najviše, uspiju to uz najmanje sredstava. Jednostavna slika govori sama za sebe.
So this is the image that we published by Bob Staake right after the election of Barack Obama, and captured a historic moment. But we can't really plan for this, because in order to do this, we have to let the artist experience the emotions that we all feel when that is happening. So back in November 2016, during the election last year, the only image that we could publish was this, which was on the stand on the week that everybody voted.
Ovo je slika Boba Staakea koju smo objavili odmah nakon što je izabran Barack Obama, uhvativši povijesni trenutak. Ovakve stvari ne možemo baš planirati, jer kako bismo to postigli, moramo dozvoliti umjetniku da doživi emocije koje svi mi osjećamo, kada se to događa. Dakle, u studenom 2016. tijekom prošlogodišnjih izbora, jedina slika koji smo mogli objaviti bila je ova, koja se pojavila na jednom mjestu u tjednu kada su svi glasali.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Because we knew somebody would feel this --
Jer smo znali da će se netko ovako osjećati ...
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
when the result of the election was announced. And when we found out the result, we really were at a loss, and this is the image that was sent by Bob Staake again, and that really hit a chord. And again, we can't really figure out what's going to come next, but here it felt like we didn't know how to move forward, but we did move forward, and this is the image that we published after Donald Trump's election and at the time of the Women's March all over the US.
kada objave rezultate izbora. A kada smo saznali rezultate, zaista smo bili zatečeni, a ovo je slika koju je opet poslao Bob Staake i zaista je pogodila bit. I ponovo, zaista ne možemo znati što će se sljedeće dogoditi, ali ovdje smo se osjećali kao da ne znamo kako ići dalje, ali smo išli dalje, i ovo je slika koju smo objavili nakon što je izabran Donald Trump i za vrijeme Marša žena diljem SAD-a.
So over those 24 years, I have seen over 1,000 images come to life week after week, and I'm often asked which one is my favorite, but I can't pick one because what I'm most proud of is how different every image is, one from the other. And that's due to the talent and the diversity of all of the artists that contribute.
Dakle, tijekom ove 24 godine, vidjela sam preko 1000 slika kako izlaze iz tjedna u tjedan i često me pitaju koja mi je omiljena, ali ne mogu odabrati jednu, jer sam najponosnija na to koliko je svaka slika drugačija, jedna od druge. A to je zbog talenta i raznolikosti svih umjetnika koji doprinose ovome.
And now, well, now, we're owned by Russia, so --
A sada, pa, sada smo pod Rusima, pa ...
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
In a rendering by Barry Blitt here, Eustace has become Eustace Vladimirovich Tilley. And the butterfly is none other than a flabbergasted Donald Trump flapping his wings, trying to figure out how to control the butterfly effect, and the famed logo that was drawn by Rae Irvin in 1925 is now in Cyrillic.
Na ovoj slici Barrya Blitta, Eustace je postao Eustace Vladimirovich Tilley. A leptir nije nitko drugi nego zapanjeni Donald Trump, koji maše krilima, pokušavajući shvatiti kako da upravlja efektom leptira, a čuveni logo koji je nacrtao Rae Irvin 1925. godine, sada je na ćirilici.
So, what makes me really excited about this moment is the way that ... You know, free press is essential to our democracy. And we can see from the sublime to the ridiculous that artists can capture what is going on in a way that an artist armed with just India ink and watercolor can capture and enter into the cultural dialogue. It puts those artists at the center of that culture, and that's exactly where I think they should be. Because the main thing we need right now is a good cartoon.
Dakle, kod ovog trenutka mi je uzbudljiv način na koji ... Znate, sloboda tiska je od ključnog značaja za našu demokraciju. A vidimo od uzvišenog do smiješnog da umjetnici mogu prikazati što se događa na način na koji umjetnik naoružan samo tintom i vodenim bojama, može uloviti i ući u kulturološki dijalog. To te umjetnike stavlja u središte određene kulture, a upravo to je mjesto gdje mislim da trebaju biti. Jer osnovno što nam je potrebno baš sada, je dobra karikatura.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)