Winning cartoons in Michigan exhibit

FLINT, Michigan - Doğan News Agency

The Aydın Doğan Foundation’s cartoon exhibition has received hundreds of Turkish and American visitors on the opening day at the Institute of Arts Museum. DHA photo

“Drawing Together: International Cartoons,” featuring 130 cartoons from the Aydın Doğan International Cartoon Competition, summarizes the last 30 years of world events at the Institute of Arts Museum in the Michigan city of Flint.

Delivering the opening speech, Flint Institute of Arts Museum Director John Henry said, “Cartoon and humor is a fact that emerges from the individual and becomes global. The selected cartoons of the Aydın Doğan Foundation reflect this fact in the best way.”

The New Yorker magazine cartoon editor Bob Mankoff said he liked the exhibition very much. “Even though cartoonists speak different languages and live in different places, they keep in touch with their common language, humor. They use similar creativity and look for humor, justice and common ground.”

Reflecting world events of 30 years
Aydın Doğan Foundation Executive Director Candan Fetvacı said interest of Americans in the exhibition was great. “These are very effective and valuable cartoons that reflect world events and summarize the incidents of the last 30 years. The tools given to visitors provide information about cartoonists and the period when the cartoon was drawn. We are very pleased about the interest,” she said.

The exhibition, which has received hundreds of visitors, will remain open until Dec. 30.

It is the third time the Aydın Doğan International Cartoon Competition has been displayed in the U.S. The first U.S. exhibition was opened Sept. 27 by New York’s Society of Illustrators and the second one was in 2008 at the United Nations building in New York.

The cartoons have also visited countries like Romania, Pakistan, Japan, Greece, China, Moldova and Belgium. The competition, which has been held for 29 years, received 2,945 cartoons from 944 artists from 80 countries for this year’s edition. A total of 175 works from 147 artists from 43 countries went to the finals.

Turkish artist Doğan Arslan, who lives in New Jersey and is also very interested in design and photography art, and Iranian artist Javad Alizadeh shared the competition’s first prize.

The second prize went to Serbian artist Vladimir Stankovski’s work and in third place was Pawel Kuczynski of Poland.

The cartoon exhibition was organized by the Aydın Doğan Foundation and invited to the United States by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Among the guests at the opening ceremony were the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation CEO William S. White and Aydın Doğan Foundation Deputy General Director Gündüz Alpman, as well as various figures from the art world.