When asked to conjure up the face of a famous person, our minds may well go first to an image by the legendary caricaturist Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) rather than to a more-realistic photograph. He was that good, working with economy, bravura and wit to give us indelible renderings.
Take Hirschfeld’s 1955 ink-on-board drawing Judy “All-Star Variety” Garland. The famed entertainer is all angles. Her body is on one extreme diagonal, and her jaunty hat goes the opposite way. She’s poking a curtain with her right hand, creating more angles with the fabric and more opportunities for delicate shading. (She’s casting a strangely-shaped, minotaur-like shadow, too.)
Hirschfeld has suggested Garland perfectly with minimal means. Her left eye is just a black circle with a tiny white dot at the center, and in depicting her left hand, he has given us a single line that curls around like a snail shell to imply her pinkie.
The portrait of Garland is one of many in a multipart Hirschfeld celebration organized by Keith Sherman, of Helicline Fine Art. “Hirschfeld: Strokes of Genius,” on view from September 10 to November 12 at his by-appointment New York gallery, will display around 60 works; there will also be a separate show of a couple of dozen works at the famed Algonquin Hotel. Nearly all the pictures are available on 1stDibs, where Sherman is offering not only the original Garland drawing but a lithograph of the image, as well.
Sherman did public relations work for Hirschfeld the last 15 years of the artist’s life and has represented his estate since his death. “His work is so iconic,” says Sherman. “He gave us the imprint of entertainment and culture in the 20th century.”
Hirschfeld may be best known for his unprecedented 75-year relationship with the New York Times, where he chronicled Broadway, Hollywood and more. He won two Tonys (both Special Awards, one in the 1970s and one in the 1980s), had his work printed on United States postage stamps and, after his death, had a Broadway theater (the former Martin Beck) named after him.
“Caricature gets marginalized, but what he did was fine art,” says Sherman. “He crossed so many lines and defied categorization in many ways.”
The 1955 image of Garland shows her at New York’s Palace Theatre, where she performed numerous times, her late-in-life appearances there in the 1960s particularly embellishing her legend. The drawing was made the same year she failed to win an Oscar she was expected to, for 1954’s A Star Is Born (Grace Kelly beat her out).
Although Garland led a troubled life, she never lacked vitality. That’s the essential element captured by Hirschfeld, who had it himself in spades. He went on to draw other legends — including Garland’s daughter, Liza Minelli, in Cabaret, also featured by Helicline this month — for nearly 50 more years.
“Look at the energy in her body — the hips, legs and arms, the tilt of the hat,” says Sherman. “This drawing is dancing, this drawing is alive, and it’s all done with a few strokes of the pen.”
