Holy Fool: Artworks

Filled with his trademark lunacy, poignancy, and arrow-to-the-heart wisdom, the collected artworks of Australia's most admired cartoonist

Here, more than 240 of Michael Leunig's artworks are collected together for the first time in a book, ranging from paintings to sculpture, and from prints to drawings. At the heart of Michael Leunig's work lies the idea of the holy fool—a character who does not conform to social norms of behavior because of mental disability or as a deliberate choice, but is regarded as having a compensating divine blessing or inspiration. The holy fool is the protagonist in most of Michael's paintings and cartoons. He is, in short, that strange person with the big nose, Mr. Curly, and Vasco Pyjama. As wonderful as his cartoons are, this collection offers much more of the artistic expression of Michael Leunig—described by the artist himself as regressive, humorous, messy, mystical, primal, and vaudevillian, producing work that is open to many interpretations.