Ken Sprague
Encyclopedia
Ken Sprague was an English
socialist political cartoonist, journalist
and activist, involved in trade union
, civil rights
and peace movements. In later life he was also a TV presenter and a psychotherapist.
Sprague was concerned with how politics affected the ordinary person. "In essence, the leitmotif of his work is about power and the abuse of power as well as the resilience of ordinary working people to this abuse... It is an art of engagement – engagement for change." (John Green, from the Introduction to Ken Sprague – People’s Artist.) Martin Rowson
said "Ken's art has the power and strength to inspire. He is the true heir, as a socialist artist, of William Morris
."
, to a father who was a train driver and a mother who worked in a cardboard box factory. His first work of art, in 1937, in response to the Guernica air raid
in the Spanish Civil War
, was a linocut
made from linoleum
torn from the kitchen floor. Printed on his mother's mangle
, it was used on collecting sheets for Spain.
He was educated at Alma Road Elementary School — until it was bombed during World War II
— and Porchester Road Secondary Modern School. There the headmaster, noticing his talent, recommended that he apply to the local art college. He won a scholarship to Bournemouth Municipal College and, from 13 and a half, studied graphics — since in those days students of his background were rarely considered for fine arts courses.
One morning in 1944 he volunteered for the Royal Marines
, aged 17, — and that same afternoon, in Southampton
, he joined the Communist Party
. After basic military training he was transferred to Vickers-Supermarine as a technical artist, working on ejector seat
s for Spitfires
. He was also sent to Yugoslavia
to bring back an ejector seat from a German plane the partisans had shot down, during which visit he adopted the big handlebar moustache
that was to become his trademark for the rest of his life.
Postwar, and after a summer stint in a circus, he completed his college diploma course in design and illustration. The Communist Party, he told his biographer, was his university, but after the Bournemouth Daily Echo
had labelled him a college revolutionary, local job prospects dwindled. He briefly worked for a volunteer labour battalion
in Yugoslavia, and was employed by the Boy Scouts
.
’s publicity manager, which also had him working as a journalist and cartoonist. Devastated by the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956
, in 1959 Sprague left to set up, with Ray Barnard, the publicity company, Mountain & Molehill (M&M). Yet he continued producing cartoons for the Worker, and its successor The Morning Star
, into the 21st century.
M&M — later The Working Arts — was responsible for some of the most innovative trade union
campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s. Sprague told union leaders they had to use publicity to win hearts and minds and to see it as an integral part of union work. And it was Sprague and Barnard who initiated the sensational 1961 visit to Britain of the first man in space, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
, inviting the former foundry worker to speak to the Amalgamated Union of Foundry Workers (now part of Amicus
). M&M also worked for the Indian High Commission, which led to a meeting with Jawaharlal Nehru
.
During the 50s and 60s Sprague also did several set designs for the left-wing Unity Theatre
, including productions of George Bernard Shaw
's The Apple Cart
, Anton Chekhov
's The Cherry Orchard
and Arthur Miller
's The Crucible
.
In the late 1960s Ken began editing the Transport and General Workers Union’s The Record, transforming it into a lively newspaper, and illustrating it with his own cartoons. In 1976 he edited the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight for some months, before being sacked when he published a criticism of Israeli oppression of Palestinians.
As a poster and print-maker he worked with a number of leading progressive organisations and individuals, including Pete Seeger
. He drew political cartoons for the Daily Worker and its successor the Morning Star, and for Tribune
and Peace News. He created posters for among others Martin Luther King and the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp
. He created posters against Edward Heath
’s Industrial Relations Act 1971
and the 1984 miners' strike, but among his most powerful works are those relating to war, including the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Iran-Iraq war
, and the Kosovo war. He was a war artist
during the Iran-Iraq war, accompanying an Iraqi regiment during an attack on the oil town of Abadan when it lost 582 men in a single day. He met Saddam Hussein
and sketched him. He encountered some criticism form comrades, given Hussein's brutal dictatorship (including CIA
-supported slaughter of communists), but Sprague maintained he was documenting the horrors of war, the subject which had first brought him to political art. He won several prestigious awards, including poster of the year award from the Council of Industrial Design on two occasions.
His linocut
s for the radical collective Cinema Action’s Kill The Bill film (1971), relating to the Industrial Relations Bill, began an involvement in moving images, which led to Jeff Perks’s 1976 BBC Omnibus
documentary The Posterman. This led to a series of Channel 4
films, devised with Jeff Perks and presented by Ken, called Everyone A Special Kind Of Artist (1986). There was also a 1979 BBC
South West series, The Moving Line, with Joan Bakewell.
, and converted it into an artistic centre. Sheila died of cancer in 1973, but with his second wife, Marcia, he set up the Holwell International Centre For Psychodrama and Sociodrama which continued until 1998. There Ken combined his artistic talents with pedagogic expertise, using them in this new field in which he became a leading practitioner. The project unexpectedly collapsed when it was discovered it should have been charging VAT
to its clients, hitting the Centre with a £40,000 Customs and Excise bill. Ken and Marcia moved to a smaller house in Lynton, where they continued the work, but later divorced.
He left the Communist Party after its acrimonious split in 1988. He continued to call himself a communist, however, saying “The party left me, I didn’t leave the party”.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
socialist political cartoonist, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and activist, involved in trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
, civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
and peace movements. In later life he was also a TV presenter and a psychotherapist.
Sprague was concerned with how politics affected the ordinary person. "In essence, the leitmotif of his work is about power and the abuse of power as well as the resilience of ordinary working people to this abuse... It is an art of engagement – engagement for change." (John Green, from the Introduction to Ken Sprague – People’s Artist.) Martin Rowson
Martin Rowson
Martin George Edmund Rowson is a British cartoonist and novelist. His genre is political satire and his style is scathing and graphic. His work frequently appears in The Guardian and The Independent...
said "Ken's art has the power and strength to inspire. He is the true heir, as a socialist artist, of William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
."
Early years
Sprague was born in BournemouthBournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
, to a father who was a train driver and a mother who worked in a cardboard box factory. His first work of art, in 1937, in response to the Guernica air raid
Bombing of Guernica
The bombing of Guernica was an aerial attack on the Basque town of Guernica, Spain, causing widespread destruction and civilian deaths, during the Spanish Civil War...
in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, was a linocut
Linocut
Linocut is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum is used for the relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised areas representing a reversal of the parts to show printed...
made from linoleum
Linoleum
Linoleum is a floor covering made from renewable materials such as solidified linseed oil , pine rosin, ground cork dust, wood flour, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a burlap or canvas backing; pigments are often added to the materials.The finest linoleum floors,...
torn from the kitchen floor. Printed on his mother's mangle
Mangle (machine)
A mangle or wringer is a mechanical laundry aid consisting of two rollers in a sturdy frame, connected by cogs and, in its home version, powered by a hand crank or electrically...
, it was used on collecting sheets for Spain.
He was educated at Alma Road Elementary School — until it was bombed during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
— and Porchester Road Secondary Modern School. There the headmaster, noticing his talent, recommended that he apply to the local art college. He won a scholarship to Bournemouth Municipal College and, from 13 and a half, studied graphics — since in those days students of his background were rarely considered for fine arts courses.
One morning in 1944 he volunteered for the Royal Marines
Royal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...
, aged 17, — and that same afternoon, in Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
, he joined the Communist Party
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
. After basic military training he was transferred to Vickers-Supermarine as a technical artist, working on ejector seat
Ejector seat
In aircraft, an ejection seat is a system designed to rescue the pilot or other crew of an aircraft in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by an explosive charge or rocket motor, carrying the pilot with it. The concept of an eject-able escape capsule has also...
s for Spitfires
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
. He was also sent to Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
to bring back an ejector seat from a German plane the partisans had shot down, during which visit he adopted the big handlebar moustache
Handlebar moustache
A handlebar moustache is a moustache with particularly lengthy, upward curved, extremities. It is named for its resemblance to the handlebars of a bicycle. It is also known as a "spaghetti moustache", because of its stereotypical association with Italian men...
that was to become his trademark for the rest of his life.
Postwar, and after a summer stint in a circus, he completed his college diploma course in design and illustration. The Communist Party, he told his biographer, was his university, but after the Bournemouth Daily Echo
Bournemouth Daily Echo
The Bournemouth Daily Echo, commonly known as the Daily Echo, is a local newspaper that covers the area of south-east Dorset, England, including the towns of Poole, Bournemouth, Christchurch...
had labelled him a college revolutionary, local job prospects dwindled. He briefly worked for a volunteer labour battalion
Labour battalion
Labour battalions have been a form of alternative service or unfree labour in various countries in lieu of or resembling regular military service...
in Yugoslavia, and was employed by the Boy Scouts
The Scout Association
The Scout Association is the World Organization of the Scout Movement recognised Scouting association in the United Kingdom. Scouting began in 1907 through the efforts of Robert Baden-Powell. The Scout Association was formed under its previous name, The Boy Scout Association, in 1910 by the grant...
.
Activist journalist/artist
Between 1950 and 1954 Sprague worked in a Carlisle mining company design office — doubling as a cartoonist for the local Conservative and Liberal newspapers. Then came a move to London as the Daily WorkerDaily Worker
The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, some attempts were made to make it appear that the paper reflected a...
’s publicity manager, which also had him working as a journalist and cartoonist. Devastated by the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956
1956 Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution or Uprising of 1956 was a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the government of the People's Republic of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956....
, in 1959 Sprague left to set up, with Ray Barnard, the publicity company, Mountain & Molehill (M&M). Yet he continued producing cartoons for the Worker, and its successor The Morning Star
The Morning Star
The Morning Star is a left wing British daily tabloid newspaper with a focus on social and trade union issues. Articles and comment columns are contributed by writers from socialist, social democratic, green and religious perspectives....
, into the 21st century.
M&M — later The Working Arts — was responsible for some of the most innovative trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s. Sprague told union leaders they had to use publicity to win hearts and minds and to see it as an integral part of union work. And it was Sprague and Barnard who initiated the sensational 1961 visit to Britain of the first man in space, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961....
, inviting the former foundry worker to speak to the Amalgamated Union of Foundry Workers (now part of Amicus
Amicus
Amicus was the United Kingdom's second-largest trade union, and the largest private sector union, formed by the merger of Manufacturing Science and Finance, the AEEU agreed in 2001, and two smaller unions, UNIFI and the GPMU...
). M&M also worked for the Indian High Commission, which led to a meeting with Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
.
During the 50s and 60s Sprague also did several set designs for the left-wing Unity Theatre
Unity Theatre, London
The Unity Theatre was a theatre club formed in 1936, and initially based in St Judes Hall, Britannia Street, Kings Cross, in 1937 they moved to a former chapel in Goldington Street, near St Pancras, in the London Borough of Camden. Although the theatre was destroyed by fire in 1975 productions...
, including productions of George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's The Apple Cart
The Apple Cart
The Apple Cart: A Political Extravaganza is a 1928 play by George Bernard Shaw. It is satirical comedy about several political philosophies which are expounded by the characters, often in lengthy monologue...
, Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
's The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
and Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
's The Crucible
The Crucible
The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...
.
In the late 1960s Ken began editing the Transport and General Workers Union’s The Record, transforming it into a lively newspaper, and illustrating it with his own cartoons. In 1976 he edited the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight for some months, before being sacked when he published a criticism of Israeli oppression of Palestinians.
As a poster and print-maker he worked with a number of leading progressive organisations and individuals, including Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
. He drew political cartoons for the Daily Worker and its successor the Morning Star, and for Tribune
Tribune (magazine)
Tribune is a democratic socialist weekly, founded in 1937 published in London. It is independent but supports the Labour Party from the left...
and Peace News. He created posters for among others Martin Luther King and the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp was a peace camp established to protest at nuclear weapons being sited at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. The camp began in September 1981 after a Welsh group, Women for Life on Earth, arrived at Greenham to protest against the decision of the British...
. He created posters against Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....
’s Industrial Relations Act 1971
Industrial Relations Act 1971
The Industrial Relations Act 1971 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, since repealed. It was largely based on proposals outlined in the governing Conservative Party's manifesto for the 1970 general election...
and the 1984 miners' strike, but among his most powerful works are those relating to war, including the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Iran-Iraq war
Iran-Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran, lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the longest conventional war of the twentieth century...
, and the Kosovo war. He was a war artist
War artist
A war artist depicts some aspect of war through art; this might be a pictorial record or it might commemorate how "war shapes lives." War artists have explored a visual and sensory dimension of war which is often absent in written histories or other accounts of warfare.- Definition and context:A...
during the Iran-Iraq war, accompanying an Iraqi regiment during an attack on the oil town of Abadan when it lost 582 men in a single day. He met Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
and sketched him. He encountered some criticism form comrades, given Hussein's brutal dictatorship (including CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
-supported slaughter of communists), but Sprague maintained he was documenting the horrors of war, the subject which had first brought him to political art. He won several prestigious awards, including poster of the year award from the Council of Industrial Design on two occasions.
His linocut
Linocut
Linocut is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum is used for the relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised areas representing a reversal of the parts to show printed...
s for the radical collective Cinema Action’s Kill The Bill film (1971), relating to the Industrial Relations Bill, began an involvement in moving images, which led to Jeff Perks’s 1976 BBC Omnibus
Omnibus (TV series)
Omnibus was an arts-based BBC television documentary series, broadcast on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings....
documentary The Posterman. This led to a series of Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
films, devised with Jeff Perks and presented by Ken, called Everyone A Special Kind Of Artist (1986). There was also a 1979 BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
South West series, The Moving Line, with Joan Bakewell.
Later life
In 1971 he moved with his wife, Sheila, a talented potter, to Holwell, a farmhouse in DevonDevon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, and converted it into an artistic centre. Sheila died of cancer in 1973, but with his second wife, Marcia, he set up the Holwell International Centre For Psychodrama and Sociodrama which continued until 1998. There Ken combined his artistic talents with pedagogic expertise, using them in this new field in which he became a leading practitioner. The project unexpectedly collapsed when it was discovered it should have been charging VAT
Vat
Vat or VAT may refer to:* A type of container such as a barrel, storage tank, or tub, often constructed of welded sheet stainless steel, and used for holding, storing, and processing liquids such as milk, wine, and beer...
to its clients, hitting the Centre with a £40,000 Customs and Excise bill. Ken and Marcia moved to a smaller house in Lynton, where they continued the work, but later divorced.
He left the Communist Party after its acrimonious split in 1988. He continued to call himself a communist, however, saying “The party left me, I didn’t leave the party”.
Books
- John Green (2002), Ken Sprague: People's Artist, Hawthorn Press in partnership with Artery Publications
External links
- Ken Sprague Fund, commemorating his life and work, runs the Ken Sprague International Political Cartoon Competition
- New InternationalistNew InternationalistNew Internationalist is a magazine from New Internationalist Publications, a co-operative-run publisher based in Oxford, England. It has editorial and sales offices in Toronto, Canada; Adelaide, Australia; Christchurch, New Zealand; and New York, USA....
, March 2005, "Ken Sprague: David Ransom pays tribute to an unheralded genius" - Carl Dutton, Nerve magazineNerve (magazine)Nerve is a free magazine published by Catalyst Media in Liverpool, North West England. Combining features on social issues with artist profiles, it runs to 32 pages and is published about three times a year...
, April 8, 2006, "Ken Sprague - People's Artist" - John Green, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, August 6, 2004, "Ken Sprague: Radical artist in the service of socialism" - Karl Dallas, The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, August 2, 2004, "Ken Sprague: Political artist who sought to build 'a picture road to socialism'" - Political Cartoons by Ken Sprague