Art Art &Commentary &Illustration 01 Sep 2009 07:32 am
Hirschfeld
- Last week there were the noisy attacks pro and con of the 09 Ottawa Animation Festival poster. It climaxed with Amid Amidi’s turn on Pete Emslie’s artwork attacking his caricatures as: “. . .tired Hirschfeld impersonations”. This isn’t quite a bad put down considering the almost 70 year brilliance of Al Hischfeld’s caricatures. Hirschfeld was an artist of the highest calibre, and to say one’s work looked like his is to say it looks like a Matisse or a Picasso.
I was never a raving fan of Hischfeld’s work, though I couldn’t help but respect his lifelong consistency, clean art and beautiful ink work. However, when I went to an exhibit which toured NY through the Public Library a few years ago. This exhibit initiated at the National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian and moved across the country.
It was after seeing this work, in person, that I began to see Hirschfeld himself. Somehow we ended up at the same venues for four or five occasions at this late point in his life. I was always too shy to go up to him to introduce myself.
Surprisingly, Hirschfeld’s caricatures were the stunning gems throughout the show. (There were also those beautiful Joe Morgan celebrity caricatures as well as setups and drawings from Disney’s Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (see this post.)
By the age of 18, Al Hirschfeld had been an art director for Louis Selznick, Sam Goldwyn and Universal Pictures. His connection with movies and movie stars was set for the rest of his life. He befriended Miguel Covarrubias in 1923 when they shared a studio and many interests.
In 1924 he left to study painting in Paris and traveled extensively for the next few years. In the interim he began to pubslish celebrity caricatures. Dick Maney, intrigued by the actor Sasha Guitry, noticed and liked a caricature on a playbill that Hirschfeld had done. Maney brought it to the attention of the New York Herald Tribune. Thus was began Hirschfeld’s career in the newspapers – including 20 years at the Tribune where he even acted as Moscow Theater correspondent for the paper.
After he had done the Marx Brothers’ collage caricature he was on a bee-line to great success.
The Night at the Opera 1935, a collage.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
A 1928 caricature of Scottish comedian, Harald Lauder, printed in the NYTimes.
This was one of the earliest published and a good start to a career.
A 1939 drawing of dancer Bill Bojangles in the show, The Hot Mikado.
Designer, Nat Karson and Producer, Hassard Short stand to the right.
This 1946 caricature of the Cradle Will Rock shows composer,
Marc Blitzstein at the piano surrounded by the cast.
This 1950 caricature of Walter Winchell shows the
style fully formed including the imbedded NINA.
Presidential candidate Wendell Willkie was painted for
American Mercury magazine in May of 1944.
A 1949 painting of H.L.Mencken as the first of a series of covers for
American Mercury magazine, Lawrence Spivak, publisher, commissioned it.
Edward R. Murrow in a painting done for TV Guide in 1956.
Good caricature is an artform of its own.
Great caricature can be as brilliant as art can get.
on 01 Sep 2009 at 9:31 am 1.Bill said …
BEAUTIFUL! He really is in a league by himself and very sorely missed.
on 01 Sep 2009 at 9:49 am 2.Tom Hachtman said …
Thanks – now I am REALLY embarrassed by the caricatures on my drawing table.
on 01 Sep 2009 at 10:12 am 3.Michael said …
Tom, you’re one of the few caricaturists who has a style all your own. There might be a small bow to Hirschfeld in your ink, but it’s all you in style, drawing and message.
on 01 Sep 2009 at 12:05 pm 4.Richard O'Connor said …
I also find it interesting how “style” develops.
The earlier work was nice, but it was just a shade of Covarrubius. Good, for sure but a step or two shy of the master.
Once he develops and sticks with his fluid line the light comes on and he’s more than a sum of his influences.
Hirschfeld was also supremely lucky to have found the perfect fit for his style. The drawing of Winchell shows that he didn’t have the bite to be a Thomas Nast or Ed Sorel. He did have an impeccable smoothness and style that fit perfectly with glamour of Broadway. We’re all more fortunate for that match.
I don’t often say this but, there will never be another like him. That alignment of the stars has passed.
Michael, you may also know that Ed Smith animated a Hirschfeld styled commerical for WQED. It’s a bit unsatisfying as the client was reluctant to actually caricature individuals. Instead you get a Bobby Short(fall) and a Frank SiNOTra.
on 01 Sep 2009 at 12:12 pm 5.George Griffin said …
To see the line drawings mingled with the paintings raises the question of what makes a cartoon powerful, unique, compressed, in-your-face, as it were. The texture, shading, color of the Murrow picture for example reflect too many painterly conventions which dilute his unique style. The lines defining Winchell, Blitztein, Karsen are essential Hirshfeld: graphic stabs of wit.
GG
on 01 Sep 2009 at 12:19 pm 6.Michael said …
George, I’ve never much liked Hirschfeld’s use of color, but I thought these were some of the best I’d seen from him. That lcid and free line work is totally his and what most people try to imitate – unsuccessfully.
on 01 Sep 2009 at 3:58 pm 7.Tom Hachtman said …
Thank you Michael – my style may be all mine but sometimes I wish it were someone else’s – especially when I do not recognize the subject.
The Hirschfeld TV Guide cover of Edward R. Murrow is a beauty. I think I find those ‘painterly conventions’ a delightful surprise. It does help when the subject has a great face.
Hi Richard – glad you’re here because I want to talk about Brodner. I used to think his major influence was Steadman – but now, maybe because he’s in the NYT, I often see Hirschfeld.
on 01 Sep 2009 at 10:31 pm 8.richard o'connor said …
Hi Tom, hope you’re well.
I’m shooting with Brodner on Wednesday. I’ll post a blog about it.
I know he’s a great admirer of Hirschfeld and I think his line is closer to Al’s than Ralph’s but the kinship is clearly there. He’s also heavily influenced by Mad Magazine guys -Jack Davis, Paul Coker and a lot of old Hollywood art.
on 02 Sep 2009 at 5:47 am 9.Tom Hachtman said …
I was thinking that I saw Steve Brodner drawing on the NYT’s website but now I realize it was the ‘Cartoon Lounge’ at the New Yorker site – Brodner actually does the Hirschfeld style, and says so, as he draws Barak and Hillary as Desi and Lucy in the one called ‘Odd Couples’. My goodness, Richard, how many of these short films have you done with Brodner? I guess I have to get an Ipod, subscribe and join the 21st Century. You should do one (perhaps you have already) that teaches kids how to caricature their teachers.
And, while we’re still talking about caricatures, one more thought before i wake up – I was working at the Ink Tank and I had a copy of MAD with a cover by Mort Drucker. It was, I thought, an amazing collection of caricatures, a masterpiece – it was a drawing of everyone who ever hosted the ‘Tonight Show’ or something – some pop culture nonsense. I showed it to Bob. I was not thinking. Bob made a face. He’s not a fan of Mort Drucker. I don’t think he has ever seen a ‘Tonight Show’. Bob grimaced. I felt like I’d showed him a dead rat, or Mickey Mouse, on a plate.
Okay – if anyone who has not worked at the Ink Tank is reading this – Bob is R.O.Blechman. If R.O. is reading this – a red faced ‘Hi Bob! I can’t believe you read yesterday’s comments on Michael’s splog and yet you have never seen ‘The Simpsons’. Okay okay – I’ll stop talking now and get back to work.”
on 20 Oct 2014 at 12:25 pm 10.Kory Acly said …
This is one awesome article.Really looking forward to read more. Much obliged.