“Grotesquerie and caricature are twin sisters, yet so totally dissimilar. Here the element of taste and the depth of insight determine the artist’s attitude toward his subject in particular, and the human condition in general.

Grotesquerie and caricature employ exaggeration and deformity in like measure and push all issues to extreme conclusions. It is not, then, the degree of aberration from the “norm” that determines the classification, but rather the nature of the artist’s approach.

Caricature is- intentional or not- comical, ludicrous and doleful; its means are external, its purpose is often didactic. The grotesque, on the other hand, is a condensation of the weird and diabolic; through it the hidden, often tragic reaches of the soul find expression.”

Reprinted from:  

Taubes, Frederic

A Judgment of Art—Fact and Fiction

Westport: North Light Publishers, 1981