Exhibition: Mel Calman on Love, Rage and Neurosis

An exhibition of some 100 cartoons by Mel Calman (1931 –1994) from the family’s private collection are to be exhibited and sold in an online auction over two weeks in February.

Most famous for his long stints at both The Sunday Times (1969-1984) and The Times (1979-1994), Calman’s unique style, and combination of humour and pathos with a philosophical bent made him highly successful.

His characteristic ‘little man’, a rather put-upon figure who looks somewhat bemused by life, attracted a major following and continues to resonate with audiences today. In his depictions of marital squabbles, we recognise ourselves and enjoy the absurdity but familiarity of lines like ‘But it’s my turn to leave you’ or ‘Do you love me? – I’m here, aren’t I?’ Mel was a master of the use of white space, using it to imply tension or silence between his characters, while puncturing the gravity of the situation with his incisive one-liners.

His musings on the human condition also include anxiety about death, achievement (or lack of it), guilt, and depression - many depictions of his gloomy little man show him either immovable in bed, or lying on a therapist’s couch. His experience of, and interest in, therapy prompted him to produce an entire book of drawings, Dr Calman’s Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (1981) but you don’t need to have undergone therapy yourself to recognise the dark humour of these cartoons.

He embraced depression as a source of humour, for example in a cartoon showing a man seated at his desk, saying: ‘No more calls for the next 15 minutes, Miss Clark, I’m going to have my nervous breakdown.’