IIC New Delhi celebrates Abu Abraham’s birth centenary with an exhibition

Team L&M

Born in Thiruvalla in 1924, Abu Abraham’s career as a political cartoonist and journalist spanned over 50 years, from the late 1940s to the early 2000s. After spending his childhood in Kollam, he pursuing his college education at University College, Trivandrum.

He began his career as a journalist in the 1940s in Bombay, until he was offered a job by cartoonist Shankar Pillai to join the Shankar’s Weekly in New Delhi. A chance meeting in 1953 took him to England on what was initially meant to be a holiday. However, within two weeks of arriving in London, his cartoons caught the eye of The Punch and The Tribune, opening doors to a distinguished career as a cartoonist for the London Observer and The Guardian.

In 1969, Abu returned to India to join the Indian Express. As a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha (1972-1978), he observed the corridors of power with the same sharp eye that guided his pen. In 1981 he started syndicating his work to regional newspapers. And by the end of that decade in 1989 he returned to Kerala, the place of his childhood, where he spent his final years in Trivandrum until his death in 2002.

The five decades of his work also saw many political upheaval and social change, and he responded to the times with a vast body of work that reflected the era (1940-2000s). In addition to creating daily cartoons for various publications, he traveled widely, met notable figures, and produced a sharp visual account of the global social and political landscape. In the true spirit of satire he spared no one.

IIC is celebrating his birth centenary year with an exhibition of his work as a cartoonist, journalist, caricaturist and artist.  It presents for the first time a glimpse into the large body of work he did through the second half of the twentieth century including political cartoons, caricatures, comic strips, travel sketches, newspaper illustrations, and portraits. The exhibition not only traces Abu’s evolving style over the decades but also offers a visual history of Indian and world politics during the period.

On show will also be Abu’s award winning animation film No Arks (1969), a political allegory based on Noah’s Ark.

Till November 19, at Art Gallery, Kamladevi Complex, IIC New Delhi