Scarfe by Scarfe

In this perceptive ""autobiography in pictures,'' the prolific and versatile British political cartoonist and social commentator recalls that he was frequently bedridden with illness as a child and, therefore, drawing became his method of communication with the world. He discusses his lack of formal training and his early ``mindless'' commercial workwhich he calls ``lies''in advertising, which ultimately contributed to his ``desperate need to make drawings that had some purpose, that expressed my hopes and fears. I felt above all the need to capture on paper some sort of social comment.'' His black humor and cynicism and his penchant for grotesque and sexual imagery are evident in the reproductions of his drawings, paintings and sculpture presented here, depicting the Beatles and economist John Kenneth Galbraith (on Time magazine covers), the British royal family, six American presidents, the Vietnam and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars and the cholera epidemic in Calcutta. American readers may find some of the British personages obscure. (December)