Horsey hits targets with precision and style

No introduction is necessary for the readers of the Seattle P-I to the work of political cartoonist David Horsey (if you're new to town, take a quick look at his online gallery to see who I'm talking about).

ART REVIEW

THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE OF DAVID HORSEY

WHERE: Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave.; 206-622-9250; www.fryeart.org

WHEN: Through May 23; hours: Tuesday-Wednesday and Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Thursday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Sunday, noon-5 p.m.

ADMISSION: Free

LECTURE: Curator Richard West, April 3, 2 p.m.

A Seattle native, Horsey started working for this paper soon after he graduated from the University of Washington in the late '70s, and he's been an institution (or in his own words, "happily stuck") here ever since.

Horsey is also nationally syndicated and nationally recognized, with two Pulitizer Prizes under his belt.

This respect is well earned, since not only is he an excellent draftsman, but he has a distinctive drawing style -- a rarity in a field that has become almost overrun with Pat Oliphant clones.

Horsey himself was inspired by the great Oliphant (his earliest P-I entries even aped Oliphant's trademark feature of a little talking character in the lower right-hand corner), though his style also betrays many of the MAD comic-book artists that he grew up reading in the 1960s, specifically Mort Drucker and Jack Davis, as well as Playboy cartoonists from the same era, such as Arnold Roth and Erich Sokol.

I also grew up reading and admiring these same comic artists, so it's no wonder that I've always been drawn to Horsey's work.

It's also for this reason that I was quite excited to see his original art close-up at his retrospective at the Frye Art Museum ("The Expanding Universe of David Horsey," through May 23).

His sense of composition is uncanny, and his use of pen and ink is impressive. The fact that the only corrections he appears to make is in the lettering reinforces the notion that his drawing skills come naturally. He also is a very good caricaturist -- a good skill to have in his line of work if you want to avoid all those labels signifying who's who!

Editorial cartooning is one of those gigs that looks a lot easier than it is. To comment on the latest news in a witty and succinct fashion, and in a way that's consistent with your established world view while simultaneously making a decent drawing out of it EVERY SINGLE DAY is quite a hat trick. Yet Horsey does this in spades, and keeps on doing it in spite of the fact that his "reward" is usually an e-mail box full of letters telling him what an idiot he is.

That reminds me: At the Frye I was taking in one of Horsey's several hilarious drawings of Bill Clinton, during Monica-gate, running around in his heart-festooned boxer shorts. Horsey obviously had a warm spot for our fun-loving 42nd president and, in retrospect, I couldn't help but think: Who doesn't? I even said as much out loud, thinking I was among like-minded company, only to inspire a woman to blurt out: "Who, Clinton? I STILL hate that bum!"

More headlines and info from Downtown.

Peter Bagge is a Seattle-based cartoonist best known for the comic book "Hate," published annually by Fantagraphics. Besides his cartoons in Reason.com and his contributions to the Weekly World News (supermarket tabloid), his work can be found locally in The Stranger.

Add P-I Visual Arts headlines to