Notes

The present lot has been selected for inclusion in the upcoming exhibition Truth to Power presented by the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in collaboration with the Apartheid Museum. In celebration of Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 90th birthday, the exhibition will detail his enormous contribution to South Africa and the world. The exhibition will be on display at the Old Granary building in Cape Town from the 7th of October 2021. The prospective buyer will need to consider arrangements with the Foundation regarding the duration of the loan for this exhibit.

Thierry Cassuto is a film and television producer based in Cape Town, South Africa. He is best known as the executive producer and co-creator of ZANews alongside Zapiro, whose socio-political commentary through satirical cartoons has been published worldwide. The show is a daily and weekly satirical news programme in the form of a mock puppet television newscast and features on both the web and television. ZANews features key local and international political figures and celebrities. For eight seasons, ZANews has been using its puppet cast as mouthpieces for satirical commentary on South Africa's socio-political arena. The South African satirical news puppet show is loosely inspired by the British cult feature Spitting Image and French Guignols de l'info. The life-size puppet caricatures of Tutu (lot 75) and Mandela (lot 76) appeared on the television show. The Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu stated the following in a letter when ZANews was nominated for an Emmy award in 2015: “The creators of ZANews are very clever, though they exaggerate the size of my nose! They are clever because they can make us laugh and cry at the same time. They tell the most wonderful painful truths –– hilariously. They are like an antibiotic for those who take themselves too seriously.”

Provenance

Donated by the artists.