After the Evers blog, thought I'd send along some scans of mid-century ad illustrations and illustrators I have admired. I cleaned out a voluminous ad clip file in the past couple of weeks... a whole lot of stuff that wasn't very good... probably clipped for information or reference. In doing so, came across some work that is good and that you might enjoy seeing.
Several examples of the ubiquitous TV Guide.
These are not outstanding art or illustration....just average issues. Most are signed, but with the exception of 'Amsel', hard to read.
But... they reminds me of an era.
An era where, somehow, there was a stability about going to the check-out counter and always seeing TV Guide prominently displayed on a wire stand.
It was a constant and familiar part of our lives. And....to an illustrator, reassuring because the covers were illustration. Strong, bold illustration, easily seen... some by the 'better' illustrators, and most by artists not well known.
Certainly by the 70's there were a lot of new names in the east....many 'would be' Fuchs, or Peaks in style. I miss those TV Guide days. Being a creature who resists and even abhors change, in spite of my announced mantra of 'change is the constant', I miss order and the slower way of life that 'usta be' in those days.
Enough geezer rambling and pondering. These were in the bulging ad file that I've cleaned out, and not worth a blog, though with a few better illustrators, a 'TV Guide' blog might be an interesting TI. More odds and ends to come....hopefully for entertainment.
Cheers and best... Chas.
wow- that brought back some memories- all those illustrations I saw growing up, must of helped to model me and my work!
ReplyDeleteI remember many of these covers by the check-out. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteCharlie.
Numbers 1 and 3 are by Jim Sharpe
ReplyDeleteNumber 2, of course, Richard Amsel
Number 4 sure looks like Bernie Fuchs
Number 5 is Ted Coconis (not sure of that spelling)
Yeah! How it "usta be" - you sent me into a search and research with this one, Charlie.
ReplyDeleteIn those times the German TV-Guide, "HörZu" (which translates to "listen to", it was also a Radio-Guide) came up every week with a very "Rockwellesque" cover; a source of constant amazement to me.
These countless humorous genre kind of illustrations (some 250 for this magazine alone) with unvarying perfection were done by a Dansk illustrator, I found out.
Kurt Ard is his name, a self-taught chap on top of it - don't even know if he has been covered in TI yet, I must confess.
Del; Thanks for ID'ing Jim Sharpe - I've heard the name but wasn't familiar with his work or signature. The others are ID'ed in my Flickr archives (or by hovering your cursor over the image) except the unsigned piece.
ReplyDeleteRich; Very interesting about Kurt Ard. I've been meaning to take a look at him on TI for some time... I have quite a few things by him from his early American period in the late '50s. I know David Roach wrote about him in the new Lifestyle Illustrations of the '60s book we featured recently.