A new exhibition celebrating some of the most incisive political commentary, delivered from cartoonists armed with a pen, paper and cutting wit, has gone on display in Canberra.

Behind the Lines 2014 is on show at the Museum of Australian Democracy (MOAD) at Old Parliament House.

Curator Tania Cleary said most of the cartoons focused on the Abbott Government's first year in power.

"Certainly there have been a lot of cartoons with the Prime Minister, Treasurer and the Foreign Minister," she said.

"But more importantly, there's probably been far more cartoons this year about Clive Palmer.

"He's the number one cartoonists' pick for character at least."

Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight was named the exhibition's political cartoonist of the year.

He said the physical characteristics of politicians are just the beginning of a good caricature.

"The Prime Minister has the ears, Brownyn Bishop has that hair and that amazing smile and the glasses," he said.

"But I think what we also try to capture in a political caricature is the politics of the person.

"The actual caricature after a while starts to not look like the person and look more like their politics."

MOAD manager of visitor experience Michael Evans said political cartoons were enduring a changing media landscape.

"It's the ability to capture what we're all thinking, but maybe what the mainstream journalists aren't saying," he said.

"A journalist gets to the meaning of what's going on, a cartoonist cuts right down to the essence of it."

Mr Evans said political cartoons were still a relevant tool of democracy.

"One of the things that's really important about political cartooning is that we are free to do it," he said.

"We had some people from Africa come see the exhibit at the start of the year and they were a bit agitated when they saw the cartoons.

"One of them asked 'what's happened to these cartoonists?' and they were quite surprised and struck that they were still working."

The exhibition will be on show for 12 months.