Now She'll Never Get an NEA Grant

By DAVID ELLIS/

The First Lady enjoys a good joke, but she might blush at the contents of a cartoon catalog that opens with her words of introduction. When some of the world's top satirical artists celebrated the first censorship-free International Cartoon Festival in Budapest, they were welcomed by a gracious greeting that Barbara Bush composed for the festival's catalog. "Art and humor are essential in a free society," wrote the President's wife. "It is wonderful to see Americans joining with the new democracies of our world to help educate people with the perspective satiric art can give." To be sure, the festival's artists ridiculed the communist system, but their works might make the First Lady's hair stand on end. Many of them, on display until Oct. 23, are scatological in nature; others are bitterly antireligious. Among the entries: a Soviet sketch featuring a man nailing himself to a cross and a Norwegian caricature of the Pope wearing a condom on his head. The exhibition, which was organized by WittyWorld, a U.S.-based magazine of international cartooning, also includes many sculpted depictions of male genitalia. Notes an American visitor: "These are people using a sexual vocabulary for the first time. It's like a kid screaming dirty words." Ironically, the current censorious frenzy inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe would make it nigh impossible for Mrs. Bush to be associated with such an event in the U.S.

With reporting by Sidney Urquhart