Six years after the American University Museum hosted a retrospective of renowned British illustrator Ralph Steadman’s work, the gonzo artist has something else to say.
Ralph Steadman: And Another Thing opened September 7 at the Katzen Arts Center, kicking off a yearslong tour of the United States. The exhibition spans Steadman’s nearly 70-year career, from his early sketches as a student at East Ham Technical College in the 1950s to his iconic collaborations with journalist Hunter S. Thompson and Rolling Stone to a contemporary series on extinct and endangered birds.
And Another Thing, which ran through December 8, featured 149 pieces—all but about 15 of which haven’t been showcased before, says Andrea Lee Harris, exhibition coordinator and cocurator.
“Discovering Ralph Steadman’s art is a rite of passage into a new way of thinking and connecting with the world,” Harris says. “[It] taps into our humanity and humor and unearths new insights about who we are and what we stand for. Once you experience Ralph Steadman, there is no going back. His art is a call to action.”
Steadman has illustrated Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, Animal Farm, and other works of literature and designed the labels for Flying Dog Brewery for more than 30 years. But he’s perhaps best known in the US for the striking, grotesque images he contributed to Thompson’s Fear and Loathing books in the 1970s and his biting satirical depictions of American presidents from John F. Kennedy to Donald Trump.
Steadman is part of a longstanding tradition of artists who skewer politicians for their pomposity and hypocrisy, says W. Joseph Campbell, AU professor emeritus of communication.
“Their wit and satire have long been popular features of the American political landscape, both left and right,” Campbell says. “And some have become well-known, given their skill in deflating the arrogant and the haughty. Think of Thomas Nast and his skewering of the Boss Tweed political machine in nineteenth-century New York. Think of Art Buchwald and his lampooning of Richard Nixon for years in the Washington Post.”
From politicians who’ve run afoul of the law to fowl that are running out of time, And Another Thing also features illustrations from the trio of books about birds, animals, and conservation that Steadman produced with British filmmaker and writer Ceri Levy.
In 2010, Levy emailed Steadman to invite him to contribute an illustration of an extinct bird for an exhibition he was organizing. The day after the two finally connected on the phone, Steadman sent Levy three sketches of birds.
“I told him, ‘I only need one,’” Levy says. “The following day, he sent me three more. We spoke about it and laughed. Then he sent me three more, and so on. In the end, he did more than 100 drawings. We hung every one of those pictures from floor to ceiling and provided binoculars so people could bird-spot.”
An AU Museum staffer’s keen eye and zeal for Steadman’s work prompted the illustrator’s first exhibition on campus, which opened in June 2018.
Earlier that year, preparator Kevin Runyon, CAS/MFA ’22, was sitting with Jack Rasmussen, the inaugural C. Nicholas Keating and Carleen B. Keating Director of the AU Museum, perusing a stack of proposals. One from Steadman’s team grabbed Runyon’s attention.
“I thought it could be a big exhibit for the university,” he recalls. “Since I was young, I’ve been into [Steadman’s] style. I think the first time I saw his artwork was in Rolling Stone magazine, in 1998, when the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas starring Johnny Depp was coming out. It was exciting, raw.”
Runyon’s enthusiasm made an impression on Rasmussen, CAS/MFA ’75, MA ’83, PhD ’94. “Kevin made it possible for us to present something that would speak to a younger demographic and get them excited about the museum,” Rasmussen says.
The artist appeared on campus for the opening of Ralph Steadman: A Retrospective and interacted with museumgoers. He didn’t, however, attend the opening of the 2024 exhibition; at age 88, he doesn’t travel as much as he used to.
Rasmussen says And Another Thing is an opportunity for people of all ages—but particularly students and younger individuals—to learn about Steadman’s work.
“Museums are almost like ancient history to young students until they realize we’re doing something relevant to their lives,” he says. “But you have to get them in the door. Ralph Steadman gets them in the door. You come here because of Ralph, but there’s seven other shows you might fall in love with, and they’re all just as good.”