Bernie Fuchs

Wall Street in Light and Shadow

1985

Painting for a poster, Comisky Park, Chicago White Sox Stadium 1985. Illustrator's Works Defined an Era: Bernie Fuchs, 76 By Adam Bernstein Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, September 19, 2009 Bernie Fuchs, 76, an illustrator whose influential work for magazines ranging from Cosmopolitan to Sports Illustrated seamlessly blended qualities of traditional narrative with hints of abstract composition, died of esophageal cancer Sept. 17 at a care facility in Fairfield, Conn. He lived in nearby Westport. Mr. Fuchs was adept at balancing art and commerce. He met the needs of mass-circulation magazines accustomed to Norman Rockwell-style realism, but he injected a fresh vitality and impressionism that became hugely popular and transformed the illustration field. He even experimented with bold designs based on the abstract expressionism movement popularized by painters Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. One vivid example, commissioned by McCall's magazine in the late 1950s, was a portrait of two young couples relaxing in a small room after dinner. One man is lying on the ground, his head nestled on a woman's lap and smoking a cigarette as she strokes his hair. While the image has the control and realism of Rockwell, it also has several more dynamic features taken from avant-garde techniques: the vigorous brush strokes; the tilted horizon that heightens a sense of drama; a lampshade in the foreground that appears slightly distorted; and, most strikingly, the placement of the couples in the distance instead of being the center of the picture. "Bernie combined the best of both worlds," said illustrator Murray Tinkelman, who directs the University of Hartford's master of fine arts program and chairs the New York-based Society of Illustrators' hall of fame committee. "He became the most emulated and imitated illustrator in the field through the 1980s . . . when the vogue turned to more decorative, whimsical, punkier illustrations that were influenced by underground cartoons like those of Robert Crumb." Mr. Fuchs entered the hall of fame in 1975. He was among the youngest inductees on a roster that includes Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth, Winslow Homer and John James Audubon. Bernard Leo Fuchs was born Oct. 19, 1932, in the coal mining town of O'Fallon, Ill., and his father soon abandoned the family. As a young man, Mr. Fuchs enjoyed drawing characters from Walt Disney movies...

Medium: Oil on Board Signature: Signed Lower Right Sight Size 22.00" x 29.00;" Framed 22.00" x 29.00" America's Women Get the Vote Calendar Illustration

This artwork titled "Market Street, San Francisco" c.1960 is a watercolor on paper by noted California artist William Jack Laycox, 1921-1984. It is signed at he lower right corner by...

Great Wall Street piece by John R. Grabach (March 2, 1886 – March 17, 1981) with expressive colors and figures. Grabach was a renowned American painter, best known for his evocative...