- Kari Suomalainen
Kari Yrjänä Suomalainen (
October 15 ,1920 -August 10 ,1999 ) wasFinland 's most famouspolitical cartoonist . His first cartoon appeared in the start of the year 1950, showing an infant boy (the symbol of theNew Year ) contemplating two toys: a tank and a dove carrying an olive branch. The boy is saying: "Tank... or dove? I want them both!"Suomalainen started drawing daily political cartoons in
Helsingin Sanomat in the year 1951, duringJuho Kusti Paasikivi 's presidency. His cartoons soon became popular throughout the nation. While most of them comment on current politics, some are based on every-day life.One of Suomalainen's most favourite characters was
Urho Kekkonen , whom he drew as a bald man with an angular chin and huge eyeglasses. When Kekkonen became president in 1956, Suomalainen stopped, for a while, using the character, due to an "unwritten law" forbidding caricaturing the president. Suomalainen published a cartoon of himself weeping at Kekkonen's portrait, saying he "felt like a man who has just lost a gold mine". Later, Suomalainen continued using the Kekkonen character.Other famous Suomalainen characters include president
Mauno Koivisto (a man with thick eyebrows and a strand of hair pointing upwards), prime ministerKalevi Sorsa (a cross between a man and a duck - in Finnish, "sorsa" means "duck") and the artist himself (a short, rotund man with long, black hair and a mushroom-shaped hat).Suomalainen was known of his political cartoons and he often drew his characters by political party category.They were:
* A fatpriest with amilitary helmet on his head was a member of theNational Coalition Party .
* Askinny worker was a member ofSocial Democratic Party of Finland .
* A fatyokel was a member ofCommunist Party of Finland .
* A fatlandlord /farmer was a member of Centre Party .Suomalainen received many awards for his work, including the
National Cartoonist Society (USA) award in 1959,Puupäähattu in 1984 andPro Finlandia in 1989. He was also appointed honoraryprofessor in 1977 by president Kekkonen.Suomalainen stopped making daily cartoons in 1991, but kept on drawing even after that. "Suomalainen" is also the Finnish word for a Finn.
A film, "Kari ja hänen 9 presidenttiään" was made by documentary filmmaker
Juho Gartz in 1994.Suomalainen died in 1999 at the age of 78.
External links
* [http://virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=27040 Article in Virtual Finland]
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