Cartoon by Georges Wolinski, depicting French president Jacques Chirac.
French satirical cartoonist Georges Wolinski was born in 1934 in Tunisia. His family moved to France in 1946, where he attended grammar and high school. He studied Architecture in Paris from 1952, but didn't finish his studies. By 1960, he started contributing cartoons, illustrations and a series of comic strips to the satirical monthly Hara-Kiri. These comic strips were based on political or erotic themes: 'Ils Ne Pensent Qu' à Ça' ('They Only Think of One Thing'), 'Histoires Inventées' ('Invented Stories') and 'Hit-Parades'. Wolinski's sharp cartoons soon also found their way to publications like Action and France-Soir.
During the student revolt of May 1968, Wolinski co-founded one of the most mordant satirical magazines, L'Enragé (the Enraged), with Jean-Jacques Pauvert and Siné. He also expressed his philosophy in the comic strip series 'Je Ne Veux Pas Mourir Idiot' (I Don't Want to Die an Idiot') and 'Pas Que la Politique Dans la Vie' ('There is More to Life than Politics').
Cartoon by Georges Wolinski.
Wolinski was one of the original contributors to Hara-Kiri's weekly counterpart, Hara-Kiri-Hebdo, from 1969. The magazine was soon renamed to Charlie Hebdo and Wolinski served as editor-in-chief from 1970 until 1981. In 1977, Wolinski became an editorial cartoonist of the Communist daily L'Humanité. Wolinski's drawings can additionally be found in the daily Libération, the weekly Paris-Match and L'Écho des Savanes. He also appeared in Benoît Lamy's documentary 'Cartoon Circus' (1972), a Belgian documentary about cartoons and comics, in which he was interviewed alongside Siné, Picha, Roland Topor, Cabu, Jean-Marc Reiser, François Cavanna, Professeur Choron, Gal, Willem, Joke and Jules Feiffer.
Wolinski made a graphic contribution to Marion Vidal's 'Monsieur Schulz et ses Peanuts’ (Albin Michel, 1976), an essay about Charles M. Schulz’ 'Peanuts’, illustrated with subversive parodies of the comic, that Schulz unsuccessfully tried to sue. He was one of several artists to make drawings for the "safe sex" promotional book 'Les Aventures de Latex' (FortMedia, 1991). He paid tribute to Nikita Mandryka in the collective comic book 'Tronches de Concombre' (Dupuis, 1995). In 2007 an asteroid was named after Georges Wolinski.
Veteran cartoonist Wolinski was killed at age 80 during a terrorist attack on the editorial offices of Charlie Hebdo on 7 January 2015. Editor-in-chief Charb, cartoonists Tignous and Cabu and economist Bernard Maris were also killed in the attack.
Wolinski was a strong influence on Kim Fupz Aakeson, Alfredo Chiappori, Marec, Erik Meynen and Marc Verhaegen.
'La Reine'.