Bernie Fuchs

James Garner, TV Guide Cover

1979

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...

Date: 1972 Medium: Watercolor and Gouache on Board Dimensions: 17.50" x 11.50" Signature: Unsigned Nightmare House, Digest Cover, 1972

'Look Homeward, Angel', Anthony Perkins Costume, Broadway, Motley, Academy Award, LACMA, Guggenheim Museum ----------------- Initialed lower right, 'DJ', for Dorothy Jeakins (American, 1914-1995) and dated 1957. Titled, 'Look Homeward, Angel' and 'Eugene Grant, Anthony Perkins'. Inscribed with costume designer notes and bearing costumer's fabric swatches. Costumes for this production were mostly undertaken by Motley Design Group (Margaret Harris, Audrey Sophia Harris and Elizabeth Montgomery). Jeakins was a close personal friend of Perkins and would likely have designed this costume as a personal favor to the actor Premiering on November 28, 1957 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, 'Look Homeward, Angel' ran for a total of 564 performances, closing on April 4, 1959. Directed by George Roy Hill, written by Ketti Frings, and based on Thomas Wolfe's 1929 largely autobiographical novel of the same title, the cast starred Jo Van Fleet...

Jim's of Lambertville Fine Art Gallery is proud to present this piece by LeRoy Neiman (1921 – 2012). LeRoy Neiman was born in 1921 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He displayed a great talent for art at a young age, working as an illustrator for local grocery stores as a teenager. Even after being drafted into the Army in 1942, he spent his spare time painting murals on the walls of kitchens and mess halls, where he served as a cook. Once the Army’s Special Services Division took notice of his talents, he was sent to work on painting stage sets for Red Cross shows in Germany after the war. Upon returning to the United States, Neiman enrolled briefly at the St. Paul School of Art before attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and later, teaching figure drawing and fashion illustration there. While working at the Art Institute of Chicago, Neiman discovered his primary medium, enamel house paint, when a janitor threw out some half-empty cans of it next door to his apartment. From this medium, he embraced a technique of rapid paint application. While freelancing as an illustrator for the Chicago department store, Carson Pirie Scott, in the 1950s, Neiman met Hugh Hefner, who would become a great friend and help establish his artistic reputation. In 1954, Hefner showed Neiman’s paintings to Playboy’s Art...