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RETURNING FROM COMIC-CON
I just returned from San Diego Comic-Con, the happiest place on earth, with the flash mob of dancing Cap'n Crunches still ringing in my ears.Celebrating a change in the Cap'n's uniform, adding a...
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NORMAN ROCKWELL, THE THUNDERBOLT OF KARMA
Critics have studied Norman Rockwell's work from many perspectives, but no one has analyzed Rockwell's role as a vehicle for vengeful gods dispensing karma. Behold the gods at work:In 1994, a wealthy...
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ARTISTS IN LOVE, part 22
Another in a series about the strange doings at the intersection of art and love.Jimmy SwinnertonJimmy Swinnerton's life was even zanier than the comic strips he created (including Sam and his Laugh,...
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THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF FACES
This drawing by Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi is about an inch tall:It's one in a long line of faces like these......which are part of an even larger grid... ... which continues on and on......and on...
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HOW MacNELLY KEPT IT LOOSE
There's a lot going on in this political cartoon by the great Jeff MacNelly.Using three point perspective, he fits important information neatly through each of the three windows of the ambulance; he...
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A NEW BOOK OF ILLUSTRATORS' SKETCHBOOKS
Bill Watterson, creator of the legendary comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, said, "Every line you draw drops your pants."It's true. A pen nib is a better lie detector than a polygraph needle. Unlike...
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LEYENDECKER: ANOTHER LOOK
A few weeks ago I criticized a museum exhibition and an art critic for their shabby efforts to reduce the great achievement of J.C. Leyendecker to a "gay fifth column." They claimed to see "hidden...
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BURT SILVERMAN EXHIBITION
A major new exhibit of the work of Burt Silverman has just opened at the Salmagundi Club in Manhattan. The exhibit-- a feast for the mind and the eye-- contains 35 significant paintings.For many...
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A NEWSPAPER AD FROM 1976
In 1976 Northwestern Hospital placed an ad in a Chicago newspaper announcing the opening of two new medical facilities. Every copy of that advertisement-- except mine-- has now been used to line bird...
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ONE LOVELY DRAWING, part 70
The great Mort Drucker drew this ad for Burger King in 1990:There are 40 different faces in this riot of a drawing. Most cartoonists rely on a basic template of four or five facial expressions, but...
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THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE THREAT TO TRADITIONAL ART
Artists have historically performed many important functions, such as drawing pictures for young women to show what their future husband will look like naked. Note that the above drawing will be "hand...
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EDENTULOUS
This editorial cartoon by the great Michael Ramirez was published by the Washington Post on November 7 and withdrawn the next day after complaints that the cartoon was "racist."Ramirez combines strong...
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ARTISTS IN LOVE, part 23
After last week's arguments over politics and war, we are overdue for another report on the curious doings at the intersection of art and love:Norman Lindsay and Rose SoadyArtist Norman Lindsay said...
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A TRIP TO THE SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS
Every time I visit Manhattan I make a beeline for the Society of Illustrators which, pound for pound, remains one of the most interesting galleries to visit in the city. Many pictures there are not...
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THE END OF 2023
Milton Avery (1893-1965) was famous for simplifying forms. He refined and refined them in search of their poetic core.I love his painting of a spring orchard:Here are two of his paintings of the sea...
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NATHAN FOWKES PAINTS A TREE
I love this little study of a tree by Nathan Fowkes.Fowkes is renowned for his mastery of color but even in this simple grayscale sketch his keen powers of observation shine through. Look how he's...
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THE QUESTION IS PERMANENT; ANSWERS ARE TEMPORARY
In my recent post admiring a painting of a tree, someone commented that artists have been drawing trees for 30,000 years, and suggested that there could not be much new to say. But as William Irwin...
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A HUNDRED ARTISTS ON THEIR BACKS
When I first saw the ceilings of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, I was gobsmacked by their ornamentation -- nearly a hundred galleries dense with weird figures, mysterious symbols, grotesque creatures,...
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WARRING WITH TROLLS, part 10: VIOLATING THE SPACE TREATY
"To live is to war with trolls." -- IbsenThe United Nations Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space strictly forbids "harmful contamination of...
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MY TWO GRIPES WITH "IDEA" ILLUSTRATION
I like Tomi Ungerer's drawing about the nature of men and women:The lines may appear light and slapdash, but the ideas have genuine weight. It's an excellent example of conceptual or “idea” art, which...
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WARRING WITH TROLLS, part 11
"To live is to war with trolls." -- IbsenAnthropologists tell us that primitive cultures believed art had supernatural properties. Prehistoric tribes thought that striking a drawing of an animal on a...
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WHAT ALICE MOLLON UNDERSTANDS ABOUT INK
There's a long tradition of wars with-- and about-- ink: (The Ink Battle by Utagawa Kuniyoshi 1843)Ink has left a trail of rivalry, braggadocio, hostility and sometimes just general commotion.Ink as a...
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MEN MUST ADVENTURE AND WOMEN MUST WEEP
The stories in comics, pulp magazines, science fiction and fantasy were never subtle about the proper roles for men and women. Here is Flash Gordon by the great Alex Raymond:We see a similar...
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ONE LOVELY DRAWING , part 71
Franklin Booth (1874-1948) learned to draw by studying wood engravings in magazines while he was growing up on a farm in Indiana. He mistakenly thought the engravings had been created with pen and...
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ONE LOVELY DRAWING, part 72
This drawing by James Montgomery Flagg is as confident and brash as Flagg himself.The drawing is large-- nearly 30 inches (76 cm) and appears to have been drawn mostly from the elbow.Like Franklin...
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