Leif Zetterling

Swedish painter, illustrator, graphic artist and cartoonist, born on July 21, 1940 in Örgryte, Göteborg, Västergötland and died on July 12, 2023 in Oscar, Stockholm, Uppland. Zetterling graduated as a graphic designer from 'Den Grafiske Højskole' (The Graphic Arts Institute of Denmark) in 1965. His career had started in advertising and continued, after his graduation, parallelly with book cover design and illustrations for Swedish publishers, first for Norstedts and later also for Tidens Förlag, 'Författarförlaget' and Bra Böcker, in the end becoming a total of more than 3,000 covers. After having been the head for all advertising at all Swedish airports, he stopped this part of his life in 1971 and started in 1972, together with Jan Myrdal, 'Folket i Bild/Kulturfront' (Images of the People/Culture Front), a Swedish magazine for reports, art, literature, debate and culture. Zetterling left 'Folket i Bild/Kulturfront' and from 1973 until his death, the award-winning artist and designer Leif Zetterling was considered one of Sweden's foremost political and satirical cartoonists. Since 1984, Zetterling also painted more than 150 portraits of Swedish celebrities in total. He has also released several books, including 'Profiler' (Profiles) from 1995, which contains cartoon portraits of 39 famous Swedes. In 2000, he drew the cover of a Cartoonists Rights Network International publication. Over the years, Leif Zetterling has received several awards for his cartoons, such as the Swedish Comics Academy's Adamson statuette in 1990 and the EWK Prize in 2003. Leif Zetterling was married to Lena Söderblom, from 1978 until his death in 2023.