And this piece below - again, unsigned. You don't get the full effect at this small size but - wow - when you open the magazine to this double page spread at that great, huge Saturday Evening Post size, you can almost feel the rush of wind on your face, the roar of the jet engines and the rumble in your body as you imagine the plane passing overhead. Its a very powerful image.
A note arrived the other day from TI list member Bruce Hettema, owner of P&H Creative regarding my mid-week post on "celebrity" illustrators who did auto ad art. In regards to the work of Bruce Bomberger and Stan Galli (below), Bruce adds this interesting insight:
"During the late 1940's there was another illustrator, James Hastings, working at P&H. As past owner Chet Patterson recalled, Jim had received an offer to work for Campbell Ewald in Detroit as an art director. It was in his capacity as art director that Jim brought in the P&H artists to work on the account.
As far as I know Stan (Galli) never moved to New York. He did all his work from Marin, where he still lives. I interviewed him last year, and he still has the same studio from the 40's.
Bomberger, I don't know. Stan went freelance in the early 50's (53 to 54?). Bruce the same. I think P&H still used them on occasion as freelance. Charlie Allen came to P&H in 1950, and he became the main illustrator on the Chevy account."
Bruce has written an article on the long and storied history of P&H Creative, formerly Patterson & Hall, for the upcoming issue of Illustration magazine.
Finally, a note from my friend David Apatoff, who's blog Illustration Art is required reading for those who visit here, reminds me that the great Bernie Fuchs was profoundly influential on the art of automobile illustration during the late 50's and early 60's. The piece below is only one example of Mr. Fuch's trend-setting approach. As was mentioned yesterday in regards to Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman, automobile illustration was often done with two-man teams and, in Bernie Fuchs' case, that illustrative partnership involved the talents of a gentleman named Ben Jaroslaw.
From David's article in the 15th issue of Illustration magazine:
"Bernie reserves special words of praise for Ben Jaroslaw, who teamed with Bernie on numerous projects and who Bernie credits with helping him learn the ropes. Jaroslaw was already an accomplished car painter when Bernie arrived in Detroit. He was about ten years older than Bernie, a veteran who flew Helldiver dive bombers for the Navy in WWII. The two of them teamed together often, with Jaroslaw handling the cars and Bernie taking the figures and backgrounds. Both artists shared a commitment to the highest quality work they could possibly produce."
I've only ever come across one piece signed by Ben Jaroslaw and present it for your viewing pleasure below.
That's it for automotive art for now! Be sure to take some time to really look at all these wonderful illustrations in my Auto Ads Flickr set.
Wow! these have been great!
ReplyDeleteI have to say I care little about automobiles and living in Brooklyn I've practically given up driving compeletly. But I swear these ads really, really made me want to own a big ass car!
I don't know what it was that got under my skin. Probably a combination of the great illustration with the boredom of current automobile design. Even the color of these autos was better...
You know I think the Caddy in the April 4 post was likely one of my childhood family cars. I still remember the bizarre/wonderful color scheme of that boat: the body was a kind of "flesh" tone, the top was dark brown and the interior was upholstered in dusty turquoise. I used to love to run my hands over the hood ornament, I wanted to take it off and play with it.