Charles Bragg

Elephant Man

circa 1985

Charles Bragg, born in 1931 in St. Louis, Missouri, was an American artist, author and one of the art world’s best-known satirists. His works often featured celebrities or ordinary people depicted in a humorous—and sometimes macabre fashion—across his sculptures, stories, prints, and paintings. “You observe the human race and the world, and, if you don't get a kick out of it. I think you're missing something,” Bragg once mused. Bragg attended the High School of Music and Art in Harlem before moving to California. His early visual art stemmed from commissioned portraits, and, over time, he began to inject his own political views in sharp satires of society at large, which brought him acclaim and critical success. He was the recipient of numerous honors, notably including the Gold Medal from the National Society of Illustrators as well as the Award of Merit from the Art Directors Guild of New York. Today, his works can be found in the collections of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow; the Albrecht Museum of Art in St. Joseph, Missouri; the Loch Haven Art Center in Orlando, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, among others. Bragg died on January 9, 2017 at the age of 85.