Ben Heine

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Ben Heine

Ben Heine Graphic art by Marcin Bondarowicz, published on Ben Heine in September 2006.

Stop the war! Artwork by Ben Heine

Tragedy in Beit Hanoun Artwork by Ben Heine

Condoleezza Rice Artwork by Ben Heine

Le Baiser Artwork by Ben Heine

The Plantman Artwork by Ben Heine

Ben Heine is a Belgian political cartoonist, caricaturist and painter born in June 12, 1983, in Abidjan, Ivory coast. He studied art and journalism and currently produces political art relating to day to day international political issues. Ben Heine is mainly known for his anti-war, and pro-Palestinian activism.

1 Cartoons/Illustrations
2 Caricatures
3 Paintings
4 Controversies
5 Sources
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Cartoons/Illustrations

His anti-war cartoons have been featured on some of the most popular cartoon-Websites of the Middle and Far East World like Irancartoon, Syriacartoon, Arabcartoon, Persiancartoon, the Turkish site Karikaturevi, Tabrizcartoon, the website of the Azerbaijan Cartoon Association as well as on the largely popular Chinese Okcomic. His political images are also exhibited on other Websites dedicated to the cartoon such as Cartoonworld (United Kingdom) and Cartoonru (Russia).

Ben Heine is a member of the Don Quichotte Worldteam. His cartoons are regularly exhibited on ¨Donquichotte's daily gallery.

He draws illustrations for the Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique [1] [2]. He collaborates with the alternative information Website Rebelion and with Tlaxcala, the Translators’ Network for Linguistic Diversity.

In August 2006, a famous cartoon of Ben Heine was used for an anti-war poster presenting the Don Quichotte exhibition "Stop the War", which was held in Turkey and in Germany during the 2006 Lebanon war. His cartoons about the war in Lebanon were published in several Middle East newspapers such as the Syrian Al Baath

In November 2006, he realized a pro-Palestinian poster to illustrate an open statement of commitment to the Palestinian Solidarity Cause calling for unity in the anti-zionist struggle.

[edit] Caricatures

Ben Heine draws the caricatures of famous and less famous people around the world. Some of his caricatures are exhibited on Dessin d'humour and the National Caricaturist Network (NCN). He recently participated to the Second International Kruger Worshop.

[edit] Paintings

In addition to being a cartoonist, Ben Heine is also a painter. His timeless acrylic paintings are rather mystical with expressive touches and could be classified as “erotico fantastico burlesque”. He has been deeply influenced by the German Expressionism, Surrealism and Pop Art and draws what he sees with the eyes of imagination. To paint and draw became vital to his needs and also an exercise of the mind. Every figure expresses moods of hope and despair through human forms and structure: twisted bodies, distorted faces, deformed shapes, Ben Heine likes to play with the human physical imperfections and simplifies in a stylized way the biological curves.

He has exhibited his paintings in Belgium and England.

[edit] Controversies

Ben Heine has recently been accused of anti-Semitism by the French group UPJF (Union des Patrons et des Professionnels Juifs de France) although he wrote an open letter with other cartoonists to deny such allegations. Ben Heine strongly insisted that the concerned cartoons aimed to support the oppressed ones and criticized the Zionist actions in Palestine.