Monday, February 20, 2006

Stan Galli (1912- )


According to Walt Reed's "Illustrator in America" Stan Galli was born in San Francisco and had a variety of jobs as a young man trying to survive through The Depression. He eventually saved enough to get an education at the California School of Fine Art. His art career afterwards was interrupted by service in WWII, and though he returned to a partnership in a San Francisco art service after the war, he found the business aspects didn't suit him. TI list member Bruce Hettema mentions Galli as having worked for his company, P&H Creative, so I wonder if this might be the art service mentioned, but in an earlier incarnation? He chose instead to become a freelance illustrator, a decision that proved to be very rewarding.

Galli had a long and successful career illustrating for many major American publications, but perhaps most notable is his key role in a long campaign for Weyerhauser Timber. Galli did over fifty paintings for the company on the theme of conservation and brought in other artists like Fred Ludekens and Bruce Bomberger to produce ads as well.

Galli is in the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame and his work is in the U.S. Air Force Art Collection.

You can see a few examples of his work in my Stan Galli Flickr set.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:53 AM

    I is great that you are honoring Stan Galli inn this way. My parents were friends of his and his wife Fran And my brother and I were friends with their sons, Tim and Tom.They lived in a lovely house in Kenfield, CA (Marin County). My dad posed for Stan several times for car commercial, I think. Once, in 1958, Stan was illustrating "The Ugly American" for a "Saturday Evening Post" serial. Stan build step in the back yard, and my dad in a bathing suit sprawled in the steps and I wearing a chom san (sp?) and carrying a parasol, bent over him.

    David Hall was kind enough to track down the image for me in a Saturday Evening Post. Here is his info if anyone wants to communicate with him.
    David Hall

    Plan59 / Juniper Gallery / Shorpy

    www.plan59.com
    www.junipergallery.com
    www.shorpy.com

    12210 #340 Fairfax Towne Center
    Fairfax, Virginia 22033

    703-818-9660

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  2. My father died back in 1985 and we packed up a bunch of his belongings (he was a pack rat) and put them in storage. Well, I was recently going thru some of the boxes (over 20 years later) and came across an old Air Force magazine (Strato Scope 1957). I almost threw it out as there was so much stuff to go thru but my father had retired from the Air Force (he had also served as a Marine earlier) and I figured he saved the magazine for a reason. So I opened it up and on the inside cover was an illustration. I recognized the man right away as my dad! (no wonder he saved it...LOL)

    The likeness was incredible and I was surprised I had never seen it before. On the bottom of the drawing/illustration was a brief bio of the subject (dad) and a signature of the artist (Stan Galli). On the very bottom it advertised an article entitled "Men or Machines?" on page 25. The article was about Mr. Galli doing art work at Air Force bases across England (my dad was stationed in England at the time).

    Then tonight I was going through another box that contained a bunch of old photographs. One of the pictures is of Mr. Galli doing the illustration as my father posed for him. I was quite pleased and even more impressed with Mr. Galli's skill (The drawing and picture match perfectly). I will most definitely be framing the magazine illustration along with the photograph (what a nice find).

    The find peeked my interest so I "Googled" Mr. Galli to see what I could find. So here I am! From what I can tell, Mr. Galli is still living? I wonder if there is anyway to contact him or his family? It sure would be nice to see if I could track down the original.

    Kelly Neuner
    Kellyconrad123@gmail.com

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  3. Mr Stan Galli passed away this past spring (2009)

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