Jon Naar

Graffiti Art Photograph Silkscreen Print Truck New York City 1970s Pop Art

1974

Genre: Photographic Subject: Cityscape Medium: Silkscreen of Photograph Surface: Paper Country: United States Dimensions: 21.5" x 28" Street Art, Urban Jon Naar is a British-Americ...

Genre: Photographic Subject: Cityscape Medium: Silkscreen of Photograph Surface: Paper Country: United States Dimensions: 20.5" x 28" Street Art, Urban Jon Naar is a British-American author and photographer celebrated for his pioneering images of New York City graffiti in the 1970s. Still active in his nineties, Naar has had a multifaceted career as an intelligence officer in World War II; a globe-trotting executive during the postwar years; and an environmentalist, with nine published books to date. Born in London in 1920, Naar graduated at 15 from the private Mill Hill School. Too young to attend an English university, he crossed the Channel to study French and German at the Sorbonne. At this point, Naar had yet to develop a special interest in photography, but his artistic and design sensibilities were being shaped by his Parisian influences, particularly the street photographs of Brassaï. Four years later, his matriculation at the University of London cut short by the outbreak of World War II, Naar was conscripted. Thanks to prior experience in the Officers' Training Corps at Mill Hill, he would spend the next six years on intelligence work, including service with the British Special Operations Executive, on clandestine assignments that took him through the Middle East and Italy. At war's end, by-then Major Naar emigrated to New York City and secured American citizenship. Through the 1950s, armed with a Super Ikonta rangefinder camera and later a Praktica single-lens reflex, Naar was developing his eye as a "weekend" photographer, roving his Greenwich Village neighborhood and seeking out subject matter while on foreign corporate assignments. It was not until Naar's early forties, after influential photographers Nickolas Muray and André Kertész—both impressed by his hobbyist portfolio—offered encouragement, that he resolved to seek wider exposure as a photographer. A series of street scenes Naar shot in Mexico City in 1962 was featured in a 1963 solo exhibition in Coyoacan titled "El Ojo de un Estranjero." His 23-page photo essay on Germany, 20 years after the death of Adolph Hitler, appeared in the Italian design magazine Domus. New York Times critic Joseph Deschin, reviewing Naar's 1965 one-man show at New York University's Loeb Student Center, extolled his "flair for design and an eye for the unexpected, his pictures generate the kind of excitement that one associates with discovery of newness in the familiar." The striking image "Shadows of Children on Swings" was selected by Ivan Dmitri for the Metropolitan Museum's "Photography in the Fine Arts" exhibition, and for its permanent collection. Within the span of a few years, Naar had not only transformed himself into a professional photographer, but was in demand as a contributor to major publications like The New York Times, The Saturday Evening Post, Vogue, Fortune, Elle, and Schöner Wohnen. If Naar had a specialty at that time, it was photographing artists and architects amidst their creative (and created) surroundings. One of his earliest and most enduring images featured a young Andy Warhol sprawled on a red plush...

Doug Fraser Graphic design illustration artist. Doug was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. He attended the Alberta College of Art & Design in Calgary where he studied graphic design and illustration. After four years at ACAD he went to New York for graduate school, attaining a masters degree, MFA, from the School of Visual Arts. Without missing a beat, Doug became an award winning illustrator, (in a cartoon, bold comic book sort of style) having executed commissioned works for an array of international clients including The New York Times, the Washington Post, TIME, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Wirtschafts Woche (Germany), Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Motor Trend, NHL, IBM, and Levis. His technique originally involved traditional media of oils on canvas and evolved over the years to incorporate digital aspects both exclusive and combined with paint. During the early 90's, he was approached by the ACAD(Alberta College of Art & Design in Calgary) to teach and accepted a part-time position. Doug has sat on several juries and spoken in numerous cities including New York and Los Angeles. His illustration work has been exhibited in the US, England, Japan and Canada. Memberships have included the prestigious Society of Illustrators(NY) for eighteen years, the advisory panel of ICON5, the American Illustrator Partnership (founding member status), CAPIC and the Graphic Artists Guild of New York. 2004 recipient of the Alberta College of Art & Design Board of Governors Alumni Award of Excellence. His style is similar to the graphic novel style of Art Spiegelman, Shepard Fairey, Ben Katchor or Robert Crumb in its graphic expressiveness After a long successful career as an illustrator, the desire to create works of a different nature and purpose began to surface. Building on the technical knowledge developed professionally as a visual communicator in the graphics world for 30 years, he began to experiment once again, without the burden of client and other constraints. This freedom enabled Doug to move beyond his past and develop a body of work which is more personal in subject. This new body of paintings strongly links artistic influences with personal observations. Influences affecting structure include graphic design, abstract and figurative art. A two dimensional quality is embraced and the construction becomes as important as the subject. The subject, which is somewhat banal in tone, is derived from his own first hand experience. Exploring subject that which is usually only seen in passing, but is now observed more closely. Intense visual study precedes a process of disassembling and then reconstruction. Throughout, there's an internal dialogue between the objective and the subjective. The experiential challenge of this process has Douglas tracing the edges of where the figurative meets abstraction. EDUCATION; Alberta College of Art & Design, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Visual Communication Arts. School of Visual Arts, New York, New York, M.F.A. degree. ILLUSTRATION CLIENTS; Editorial: Boston Globe, Business Week, BUZZ, Esquire, Forbes, Globe & Mail, GQ, L.A. Times, Mademoiselle, Manhattan Inc, Mother Jones, Newsweek, New York Times, New York Woman,Omni, Penthouse, FORTUNE, TIME, Washington, Self, Sports Illustrated, Texas Monthly, Washington Post, Rolling Stone Book: David R. Godine, Houghton-Mufflin, Knopf, Macmillan, Rabbit Ears Video & Book, Simon Schuster, The Progressive, Turner Publishing (CNN), BLAB!, Telstar Comic compilation Corporate: Air Canada, Allen-Bradley [a Division of Rockwell International],Citibank, Coca-Cola, Danzas (Europe), IBM, Kingston Electronics, Kohler, Levis, Lowenbrau Beer, Concept-1 Calgary, Memorex, Oakland A's Baseball Team, National Football League, National Hockey League, Nike, Northern Telecom, Nynex NY, Pfizer, RCA, Roundtree U.K., Samsung Electronics, Sony, Suzuki Motorcycles, Tamko, USF&G [financial investment group]. Graphic Novel, Comic Book: Adhouse Press, story titles; "Electric Sheep...

Jay Wolke lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. He has had solo exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, the St. Louis Art Museum, Harvard University and the California Museum of...

Artist: Jon Naar, British (1920 - ) Title: 155th Street from the Faith of Graffiti portfolio Year: 1974 Medium: Serigraph, Signed and Numbered in pencil Edition: 250 Size: 20.5 x 28 inches Frame: 26 x 34 inches Printed by Circle Press, Chicago Published by Documentary Photos NYC Graffiti...

Artist: Jon Naar Title: Red Doc from Faith of Graffiti Year: 1974 Medium: Serigraph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 300 Size: 34 x 24.5 inches Printed by Circle Press, Chicago Published by Documentary Photos NYC Graffiti...

Dondi White, Zephyr & Charlie Ahearn ‘Heroin Kills' Subway Art Photograph 1981. A rare, historic, early 1980s Bronx, New York graffiti photograph by Charlie Ahearn of Wild Style fame...

Artist: Jon Naar Title: Tree from Faith of Graffiti Year: 1974 Medium: Serigraph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 250, AP Size: 19 x 28 inches Printed by Circle Press, Chicago Published by Documentary Photos NYC Graffiti...