CHADDS FORD, PA.- Opening at the Brandywine Museum of Art this winter, Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund will spotlight the career of an unheralded early master of gag cartooning and one of the first women cartoonists to work for The New Yorker magazine, which marks its 100th anniversary this year. The exhibition includes over 75 original drawings by Barbara Shermund (1899-1978) that highlight her clever takes on modern womanhood, in addition to letters, photographs, and other materials that help tell her story. Tell Me a Story will be on view at the Brandywine from February 15–June 1, 2025.
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The exhibition’s title is drawn from a 1950s-era cartoon by Shermund in which a little girl requests a different kind of fairy tale from her father. Both the sassy little girl and the characters she longs to hear about are the very women Shermund drew in her playful yet sophisticated cartoons. Her work had a fierce and feminist electricity rarely seen in that era of male-dominated cartooning. Shermund’s sharp wit and loose style boldly tapped the zeitgeist of first-wave feminism of the flapper-era with vivid characters that were alive and astute. Her female subjects spoke their mind about sex, marriage, and society, all while smoking, drinking, and breaking other social taboos. Later in her career, as she was more frequently assigned to illustrate jokes written by men, her approach became more subversive, adding a level of sarcastic humor all her own.
“I think audiences will be surprised at how relevant and current Shermund’s cartoons are, despite being nearly 100 years old,” said exhibition curator Caitlin McGurk, Curator of Comics and Cartoons and Assistant Professor at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at The Ohio State University. “The witty and provocative characters Shermund portrayed were drawn from her vibrant personal life and current events, and even include occasional nods to queer readers.”
Born in San Francisco, Shermund attended the California School of Fine Arts before moving to New York. Beginning at The New Yorker in 1925—the magazine’s first year of publication—she contributed nine covers, hundreds of cartoons, and countless spot illustrations to the magazine, and later became a renowned mainstay at Esquire in addition to contributing to Collier’s, LIFE, and other publications. In a savvy business move, she broke into the field of advertising, creating ad illustrations for major companies including Pepsi-Cola, Ponds, and Frigidaire. In the 1940s and 50s, her own cartoon panel titled “Shermund’s Sallies” was syndicated by King Features and ran weekly in newspapers across the country. She also broke gender barriers as one of the first three women granted membership to the National Cartoonists Society.
Tell Me A Story will present works spanning Shermund’s life and career—including early illustrations, examples of advertising work, and roughs of cover illustrations—and covering themes ranging from fashion and beauty to relationships, travel, and youth and age. “We are thrilled to present Brandywine’s first-ever exhibition devoted to a female cartoonist,” said Amanda C. Burdan, Senior Curator at the Brandywine. “Through original art, photographs, clippings, and books, this exhibition uncovers and celebrates the life and career of this outstanding cartoonist, who is only now getting the recognition she deserves.”
This exhibition is organized by the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The Ohio State University. In addition to being the exhibition’s curator, Caitlin McGurk is also Shermund’s biographer, with her new book—also titled Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund—which was released in November 2024 by Fantagraphics.
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