Bernie Fuchs Paintings

At the Masters

Signed Lower Right

Legendary illustrator Bernard Bernie Fuchs explores the creative possibilities of radical design to illustrate a narrative of an emotional state of unconnectedness. The present work ...

Date: 1979 Medium: Acrylic and Pencil on Canvas Laid on Board Dimensions: 20.75" x 13.25" Signature: Initialed Lower Center TV Guide Cover Illustration, June...

Signed Lower Right Wall Street in 1985.

Wonderful 60's chic is on full display in this beach scene. It's masterfully designed. The beautiful model horizontally fills the center space while supporting players fill background spaces. The style is very flat with lots of gray muting the colors and defining the artist's palette. Fuch's was a giant talent who is overlooked by today's art world participants. His style could be described as a post-post impressionist. This particular work is so deftly designed and exhibits the most intriguing positive and negative spaces. The model is rendered with loose, quick and authoritative brush strokes which give an air of chic confidence. Most of all, it's her dreamy blue eyes that truly captivate the viewer. All parts of the eye ( Iris, Pupil, Sclera ) are composed of a soft robin's egg blue which is in counterpoint the pink day-glow color on her lips. She looks at you. You look back and the process is repeated and repeated. Fuch's not just a great painter, designer, academic artist but a brilliant and innovative colorist as well. To demonstrate how great this simple work is, out of a world population of 7.2 billion people, as a betting man, I would say there may be no other artist who could render a scene this good. An artist such as Peter Doig, who does nice and beautiful work, may come close to the talent of Fuchs. Bernard Fuchs American, 1932 - 2009 Girl at the Beach...

Bernie Fuchs's painting "Fauve Portrait of Two Women in Blue with Red Abanicos" captures a festive scene of three Spanish women in traditional dress at...

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...

Signed Lower Right A painting for a poster print.