PHOTOS COURTESY OF HOWARD SCHWARTZ
ARTS&LIFE ART
Presidential
Art
Local collection of political cartoons goes on display virtually. SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
H
Howard and Robin Schwartz
oward Schwartz enjoys the humor of political cartoons, has amassed a collection of original drawings to characterize presidential campaigns and decided to put them on view. Although he intended to display the drawings in a gallery at the time of a national election, the pandemic changed his plans. Like so many others with artistic interests, Schwartz has turned to a digital platform. The cartoons, kept on view in his home, have been copied and are showcased on a new website, potustoons.com. The collection, so far with 23 images and three more in the framing stage, is joined with caricatures of winners even beyond the years covered in cartoons. “I intend to have all the elections eventually represented,” said Schwartz, who has a commercial real estate business in Farmington Hills. “I look at them every day because they’re in my house. “I wanted to share them with the public because they become so topical in an election year. Not everyone will have an appreciation for some of the points of view artists may portray, but they have to do with historical and political interests.”
Schwartz, who describes himself as a fiscal conservative and social liberal, traces his personal commitments to parental examples of a broader scope. He has voted early in this year’s election but does not want to disclose his ballot. Schwartz’s cartoon collecting started in the 1980s when he was living in New York. While looking through an art gallery, Schwartz noticed a drawing depicting candidates in the George H.W. Bush/Michael Dukakis campaign and bought it. “I got to meet the artist, Timothy Patrick Moynihan (a.k.a. Gus Murphy), the son of the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and four years later, I commissioned another drawing,” Schwartz said. “Again, four years later, I commissioned another drawing and kept those commissions going.” After the artist died, Schwartz’s collection froze until finding other artists — Victor Juhasz of upstate New York, Michael Edholm of Iowa and Thomas Fluharty of South Dakota. Schwartz wanted each image to tell the story without captions even as some images show people in addition to candidates. “The flavor of the conveycontinued on page 30 OCTOBER 29 • 2020
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