Noma Bar

Noma Bar was born in Israel, 1973, and studied graphic design & typography at Jerusalem Academy of Art & Design. His caricatures are often commissioned for editorials, such as magazines, and has been shown on TV. I have an interest in political and editorial illustration, and his portraits of political figures are incredible.

This image of Osama Bin Laden was a personal piece, as he would not be allowed to use this kind of imagery for a commission. This demonstrates the power in his work - nothing more than blocky shapes was considered by the artist to be too shocking. His work also shows fluent use of negative space - the relationship between the turban and the towers is invisible, but seen by the viewer through the suggestion by the shapes and what we expect from the person's face.








This image of Margaret Thatcher, at the time the leader of the Conservative Party, describes the internal struggle the party was experiencing at the time. The party was previously known as the Tory Party, with a flaming torch as its logo. Bar used this retired logo as Thatcher's nose, and edited it so the flame is smouldering in the image. The incredibly simple graphics carry a lot of meaning, and considering that Bar grew up in Israel, describes the politics of a foreign nation excellently.













I enjoy the simplicity of this image, which does not contain any conflict, simply marrying together two concepts (night and sleeping) for an easy-to-digest image about the broad subject of sleep.