Cartoons and RubbereFigures political animations by Peter Nicholson of The Australian newspaper
HOME FRIDGE DOOR REPRODUCE A CARTOON ANIMATIONS RUBBERY FIGURES JOBS BUY A PRINT ORIGINALS SCULPTURE ABOUT NICHOLSON CONTACT LINKS VIEW CART

About Peter Nicholson

Nicholson dropped out of Law at Melbourne University in 1969 because he wanted a job where you could sit and read the newspaper. His first break came when a small national paper, the Nation Review, paid him $5 for a scratchy cartoon about a barely recognisable prime minister dressed as a lion tamer. Soon he was earning a living as a freelancer doing cartoons for various papers, and animated political cartoons for the ABC with his 16mm Bolex and homemade animation stand. One day in 1976 the Financial Review offered him a job doing daily cartoons and six months later The Age in Melbourne recruited him. Nicholson worked at The Age for the next seventeen years. He was part of a famous stable of cartoonists that included Bruce Petty, Michael Leunig, John Spooner, Ron Tandberg, Les Tanner, Arthur Horner and Cathy Wilcox.

One of his early cartoons created a minor furore. Gough and Margaret Whitlam were making a widely reported trip to China, when there was an big earthquake. Nicholson's cartoon showed them cuddled up in bed, with Margaret asking Gough "Did the earth move for you too dear?" Many people wrote to the editor, saying they would cancel their subscriptions, because the cartoon was in such poor taste by the standards of the day. Whitlam, who had a robust sense of humour himself, announced he liked the cartoon, and later would refer to the whole incident as if it were evidence of his potency.

 


Gough and Margaret Whitlam caught in an earthquake in China,
in Nicholson's infamous cartoon in The Age in 1976.

In 1979, Nicholson went to live in Italy for a year, taking his wife and three small children. They lived at Bracciano just north of Rome and used this as a base to travel widely studying Italian art, architecture, scenery, food and wine. To try to make up for his lack of formal art training, Nicholson drew and painted as he went. He came back to Australia in 1980, smarter and poorer.

On an impulse, he soon started doing caricature sculpture as an offshoot of his newspaper cartoon work back at The Age, and this led to making caricature puppets. From 1987-1992 he produced and directed the Rubbery Figures television programs in his Melbourne studio. In 1994 a one-man show of his work, called The Rubbery Years, was exhibited around Australia by the National Museum. (For more information, click on Sculpture and Rubbery Figures in the menu).

In 1994 he joined The Australian, where his talented stable-mates include Bill Leak, Eric Lobbecke, Sturt Krygsman, Lindsay Foyle, John Kudelka, Judy Horacek,  Paul Newman and John Tiedmann.

nicholsonp@theaustralian.com.au