Join a panel including political satirist Steve Bell as they explore humour and satire in art, and discuss how it has impacted today’s contemporary art world.

Chaired by arts writer Jessica Lack, this discussion will begin with Félix Vallotton’s bitingly satirical prints and discuss how artists have used humour, satire and ridicule to convey social, political and everyday issues. The panel, including political satirist, Steve Bell, will go on to question why artists turn to satire time and time again and question the boundaries between satire and political commentary.

Further panelists to be announced.

Steve Bell has been drawing political comic strips for a living since 1977. Since 1981 he has written and drawn the If… strip for the Guardian and, since 1990 has been drawing up to four larger format political cartoons a week for the same paper. His work is unashamedly comic, but many of his cartoons are quite deliberately not funny at all. He was born in London in 1951, grew up in Slough and studied art in Middlesbrough and Leeds, qualifying as a teacher before becoming a cartoonist full time in 1977. His work has been published all over the world, and has won many awards, including the Political Cartoon of the Year in 2001, 2008 and 2013. His work has been exhibited internationally, including a retrospective exhibition of his work Steve Bell – Im Auge des Zeichners at the Wilhelm Busch Museum in Hannover, Germany, 2011, and Bell Epoque, a thirty year retrospective at the The Cartoon Museum, London, 2011. He has been awarded honorary degrees from the Universities of Teesside, Sussex, Loughborough, Leeds and Brighton.

Jessica Lack is a writer with a focus on modern and contemporary art. She contributes articles to all the major art magazines, and has written books about art for Tate publishing, Penguin and Thames and Hudson. Her most recent book Why Are We ‘Artists’? 100 World Art Manifestos* is published as a Penguin Modern Classic.