Patrick Bruce "Pat" Oliphant (born 24 July 1935) is an Australian-born American artist whose career spanned more than sixty years.
Over the course of his long career, Oliphant produced thousands of daily editorial cartoons, dozens of bronze sculptures, and a large oeuvre of drawings and paintings.
[2] In 1952, while still a teenager, Oliphant began his career in journalism as a copy boy at Adelaide's evening tabloid newspaper, The News,[3] which had recently been inherited by Rupert Murdoch.
[4] However, the paper's conservative editorial policies frustrated him, and after frequent vetoes of his commentaries on Australian politics, he learned that cartoons on international affairs were less likely to be censored.
[9] In this cartoon, Ho Chi Minh is depicted carrying the body of a dead Vietnamese man in the posture of a Pietà.
[10] When it won, he criticized the Pulitzer board, stating that they had selected the cartoon for its subject matter rather than the quality of the work.
After The Washington Star folded, Oliphant received offers from other newspapers but chose to remain independent, relying on the earnings from his extensive syndication.
[15] A decade later, a similar survey reached the same conclusion, noting Oliphant's original and influential aesthetic.
[24] One cartoon depicted Trump as a childlike member of the Hitler Youth, asking a ghoulish Bannon what he thought of his outfit.
"[27] Oliphant has specialized in caricaturing American presidents, and multiple exhibitions have featured his work organized by presidential administration.
He developed specific tropes for various presidents: His dark, brooding Nixon is sometimes depicted naked and ashamed, covering his privates like Adam and Eve, and at other times making the "Victory" sign.
During the Clinton administration, Oliphant regularly used Socks the cat and Buddy the dog as a sort of "Greek chorus" to comment on the events.
This character, which he named Punk, joined a tradition of such secondary figures, termed "dingbats" by cartoonist R. C. Harvey.
[13] Initially, Punk was depicted as an easily identifiable Adelie penguin,[33] but he soon became stylized and remained so throughout Oliphant's career.
[34] Oliphant originally created Punk as a space for subversion in the conservative editorial environment of the Adelaide Advertiser.
[31] Punk provided a platform for Oliphant's own opinions, while the overall cartoon needed to align with the views of the paper's editors.
In 2001, the Asian American Journalists Association accused Oliphant of "cross[ing] the line from acerbic depiction to racial caricature.
"[39] The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center said the cartoon denigrated and demonized Israel and mimicked Nazi propaganda.
[40] A 2005 cartoon showing Condoleezza Rice as a parrot perched on George W. Bush's shoulder was criticized by some readers for depicting her with buck teeth and exaggerated lips.
The Catholic League has called him "one of the most viciously anti-Catholic editorial cartoonists ever to have disgraced the pages of American newspapers.
"[42] On Christmas Eve 1993, Catholic readers were angered by a cartoon associating Michael Jackson and priests with child molestation.
[43] One of his most famous cartoons, "Celebration of Spring at St. Pedophilia's – the Annual Running of the Altar Boys," sparked nationwide debates in print, radio, and television when it was published on 20 March 2002.
Later in his career, he created illustrations for numerous books, and his work, often in full color, was featured in the pages and on the covers of many magazines.
[54] Oliphant's papers are housed at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia.
The collection includes nearly 7,000 daily cartoon drawings, numerous sketchbooks, fine art on paper, sculpture, fan and hate mail, and extensive documentation of Oliphant's career.