David Hughes

British illustrator David Hughes deals in the stuff of war journalism, international politics and social crises. An artistic descendant of George Grosz and Otto Dix, he reveals the human being as a lay figure subjugated to the determination of strange powers. From the suffering of a “Tommy” mutilated in the Falkland War to the mental anguish of a young rape victim, from caricatures of Margaret Thatcher to Osama bin Laden, he leaves no punches unpulled, no face unwrinkled, no presidents clothed (see the naked George Bush, Sr. on p. 25). The state of the public health care system is a special matter of the heart for him: in his drawings, delivery rooms often look like rabbit stables; condoms are the subject of much mordant satire. Made in England but mostly for export, Hughes' drawings have appeared in the London Times, Punch, the Washington Post, The New Yorker and DU.