Varieties of sincerity and irony in the work of Michael Leunig and Mary Leunig

Abstract

ABSTRACT Michael Leunig is arguably Australia’s most well-known cartoonist. His sister, Mary Leunig, also a cartoonist and artist in her own right, is not as well known, although recently her work is being published with more frequency, in publications such as the Lifted Brow. Michael Leunig’s work is often seen as light and whimsical, whereas Mary Leunig’s work is much darker, more violent. Both have political positions present in their work. Both artists could be described as equally sincere and ironic but in very different ways, utilising absurdity and honesty in their work in very different registers. What does the whimsical absurdity of Michael Leunig’s cartoons say about an Australian political sensibility? How does the darker violence of Mary Leunig’s art temper this with a grounding realism? Both are two visions of political and personal cartooning that comprise a kind of yin and yang of Australian attitudes towards politics, history, and activism. This paper will contrast the work of both cartoonists as a way of thinking about particularly ‘Australian’ attitudes and expressions of sincerity and irony, along with certain comforts and discomforts surrounding political activism that this use of sincerity and irony represents.