Farewell to Giorgio Forattini, the master of Italian political satire
The brilliant cartoonist Giorgio Forattini, known for his political cartoons, has passed away at the age of 94, leaving an indelible legacy in Italian journalism.
Cartoonist Giorgio Forattini has died. Drawer and journalist, author of political satire cartoons that were the first to be published on the front page of newspapers and on a daily basis, so much so that he earned himself the nickname 'king of satire' for a long time. Born in 1931 in Rome he died at the age of 94 in Milan.
Since 1973, for almost half a century, his drawings that have ironised the vices and virtues of so many protagonists of politics have appeared in 'Paese Sera', 'La Repubblica', 'La Stampa', 'Il Giornale', 'Qn', 'L'Espresso' and 'Panorama'. The news of the death of the cartoonist who changed the way of doing satire in Italy was given by 'Il Giornale', one of the last newspapers with which he collaborated.
After graduating from classical high school, Forattini attended both the two-year architecture course at the University of Rome and the Theatre Academy.
In 1953 he started working, first as a labourer in an oil refinery in northern Italy, then as a sales representative for petroleum products in Naples and southern Italy.
In 1959, he returned to Rome from where he managed the representation of a record company, first as a salesman, then as commercial director in Milan, dealing with the production of pop and classical music catalogues in Italy and the United States.
