Philip Guston's Poor Richard

Rating:
Summary: Wicked and funny
Review: This is an amazing book. It's witty, scatalogical, AND handsome. STarting in 1969 and continuing up to the eve of Watergate, American modern artist Philip Guston developed a series of ruthless cartoons lampooning Richard Nixon's rise to power. Metanymic in strategy, Nixon's physiognomy is rendered as a very [...phallic] schnoz and [...similarly-themed]jowls; Kissinger is simply a pair of horn-rimmed glasses skipping along beside; etc. We see Nixon ascend from a homely quaker childhood, survive the Checkers scandal, and eventually triumph in his second bid for the presidency. We accompany him to Key Biscayne and to China...all via Guston's comic vision. This book is a must for anyone interested in the 1960s, in political cartoons, in Nixon, or in Philip Guston's career.