Richard Basil Mock (Political Satire Modern Artist)

Richard Mock is best known for his linocut cartoon illustration editorials in the New York Times between 1978 and 1996. He worked with United Nations and the Wall Street Journal in doing pieces on subjects such as child abuse, population control, and AIDS prevention. He did a series about September 11th. In many ways, he is an activist with the sole purpose of using art to get through to people and change the world around him.

"It took me a long time to accept the need for structure in my painting. Now I feel an empathy with mathematicians and physicists in taking pleasure from order. There's a meditative aspect to order and to rhythm in painting."

Mock was named the official portrait painter of the 1980 Olympics.

Born in 1844 in Long Beach, California, Mock earned his bachelor's degree, studying lithography and block printing at the University of Michigan. He eventually settled in New York City. There he was featured on the cover of many magazines and was grouped with the "Outlaw Printmakers".

"I don't make preparatory drawings for the linocuts. For me, the cutting is just heavy drawing. The cutting slows the process down and my brain can automatically compose. The physical force of cutting is conveyed in the image."

His paintings and prints are in many public collections including The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), The New York Public Library (NYC), and The Victoria and Albert Museum (London).

"In painting, there has to be a physical connection from the painter through the paint itself... or it just doesn't work."

I feel Mock fits in this folk art collection, because he speaks for the people. The same as "folk music" has, he makes his linocuts to be simple and rooted in tradition to connect to people as they've been connected to for centuries.

"It took me a long time to accept the need for structure in my painting. Now I feel an empathy with mathematicians and physicists in taking pleasure from order. There's a meditative aspect to order and to rhythm in painting."