Friday, May 06, 2011

Happy Mother's Day! ... from Whitman's (and David Attie)

This 1951 Mother's Day ad for Whitman's was illustrated by David Attie.

Attie01

I knew I'd heard that name before... but there doesn't seem to be much by Attie on the Internet - and even less about him.

I managed to locate this 1953 piece in my collection of Art Director & Studio News magazines. So at least we now know that Attie was an east coast illustrator in the early '50s, represented by the prestigious Fredman-Chaite studios.

Attie02

Mitchell Hooks, Frank McCarthy and the young Bob Peak were all at FC during this same period. Perhaps they all knew each other...

Attie gets a brief mention in the one issue of the Fredman-Chaite Portfolio promotional magazine I own...

Attie03

... unfortunately the promo contains no biographical info on Attie.

Finally, here's a 1956 paperback cover by Dave Attie from my friend Uilke's Flickr archives.

Berkley G 015

And for now, that's all we know about David Attie. Perhaps (hopefully) TI readers can add more!

5 comments:

  1. UK vintage1:17 PM

    David Attie. Born November 30, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York; studied at the Kansas City Art institute and et the Cooper Union for Advancement of Science and Art in New York. Attie produced only a small number of paperback covers: four for Bantam in 1947 and 1948 and a few more for Dell (1950) and Berkley (1950-1954)
    In 1958, Attie did two photographic covers for Dell; he currently works as a photographer.

    [Source The Book of paperbacks by Piet Schreuders - 1981]

    Bantam 120 a Movie Tie'-in
    Bantam 408 'Doctor Kim'
    Bantam 450 'Moonlit voyage'
    Bantam 464 'Nurse into Women'

    I will upload Bantam 450 for you.

    UK_vintage

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  2. Hey, that's fantastic, Uilke - many thanks! :^)

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  3. I can add some more information here, since David Attie was a direct relative of mine. he actually left commercial illustration in the 1950's, as it began to fade, and became a fairly successful commercial photographer -- and a protege of the highly influential art director Alexey Brodovitch at Harper's. Attie also did fine art photography, including two books: "Russian Self-Portraits," and "Portrait: Theory."

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  4. here is a quick photo of an illustration of Attie's that I have in my collection: the cover of a teen novel that he must have done sometime in the 1940's or early 50's.../Users/eliattie/Desktop/IMG_0160.jpg

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  5. Hi Eli

    I was influenced by David Attie's Russian Self Portraits and have done Self Portait projects since 1979. I would love to find out more about him and to find out where his photographs are held.

    Hope you can help.

    Regards

    Brian Homer Birmingham UK

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