BonusEp 0.4 - Tamar Avishai interviews Ralph Steadman

You’ve seen the work of 84-year-old Welsh artist and illustrator
Ralph Steadman, even if you haven’t realized it. His searing
political caricature and trademark flying ink spatter have
illustrated major works of literature and journalism for the past
half-century – and most notably the hallucinogenic writing of
Hunter S. Thompson, resulting in an alchemic collaboration that
wove together journalism and illustration to create what history
has described as Gonzo, and what Steadman calls the meeting between
an ex-Hell’s Angel with a shaved head and a matted-haired geek with
string warts. We spoke in advance of his new retrospective, “Ralph
Steadman: A Life in Ink,” and talked about this storied,
ink-stained career: what it means to illustrate depravity, how a
caricature can capture both body and soul, and where to look for
the ever-present birdsong that undergirds our current doom. [2:18]:
Love of Picasso and Duchamp. [3:11]: Where do you start with
caricature, the body or the soul? [5:40]: Drawing with a pen – “no
such thing as a mistake.” [7:09]: The difference between
illustration and “fine art”. [9:55]: Use of the geometric in
Steadman’s work, ink spatter, a conversation with the paper.
[13:10]: Coming to the U.S. in 1970, David Hockney “Paranoids”.
[14:30]: Use of photographs and text in drawing. [15:15]: I,
Leonardo, the terror of the blank canvas, and “prorogation”.
[17:53]: Style, “exposing depravity” and being purified by drawing
it. [22:33]: Early career before collaborating with Hunter S.
Thompson, alchemy, gonzo. [29:08]: Favorite faces to draw. [30:48]:
2020, the pandemic, and finding the birdsong in doom. Interview
Webpage: http://bit.ly/38erSJX Music Used: The Blue Dot Sessions,
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