Visual Arts

Ronald Searle: A Celebration is something of a spiritual homecoming. The exhibition, which surveys Searle's 74 year career, is being held at Anglia Ruskin University from January 10th.

One of the highlights of the exhibition is Searle's series of St Trinian's drawings, which will be shown to coincide with the launch of the latest St Trinian's film on December 21st.

Ronald Searle

The movie stars heavyweights such as Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Russell Brand and Stephen Fry but none of it would have been possible if it were not for the Cambridge artist's influential drawings.

The Anglia Ruskin show promises to display the numerous levels of Searle's work that go beyond the St Trinian's cartoons. The Cambridge artist is equally renowned for his intellectual political satire and war time art.

Born in 1920 to a Cambridge railwayman, Searle was educated at the city's Boy's Central School and went on to work as a solicitor's clerk. It wasn't until 1936, when Searle enrolled at Cambridge Technical College and School of Art (now Anglia Ruskin), that he was able to develop his skills as an illustrator.

Searle had his first work published in 1935 by the Cambridge Daily News (now the Cambridge News and formerly the Cambridge Evening News) but had his time there cut short by the onset of war.

St Trinian's drawing

A dramatic time ensued with Searle spending much of the war in a Japanese prisoner of war camp - however this gave him the opportunity to secretly illustrate the depressing and miserable scenes he encountered through drawings. They are now held at the Imperial War Museum.

It has been well documented that Searle slowly became disgruntled with the spotlight constantly being poured on to his St Trinian's designs - which is probably why he blew the school up in his final cartoon - but Anglia Ruskin's exhibition will capture every era of a local legend's career.

Fellow illustrator Quentin Blake, who will be opening the exhibition, sums up Ronald Searle's career best when he says, "Ronald Searle succeeded brilliantly and distinctively at pretty well everything that an illustrator might hope for; but perhaps he is most inspriing to us all as a consumate druaghtsman."