Lionel Gilbert; Illustrator, Fine Artist, Teacher

Here are the last few remaining illustrations by Lionel Gilbert I have in my collection. As with everything I've shown this week, they date from the early to mid-1950s.







In 1965, Lionel Gilbert left illustration behind to explore fine art painting.



As it says in the description of a 2010 show of Gilbert's work at the Carrie Haddad Gallery, "... no longer using the paint to tell stories, Gilbert began to explore what the paint itself—its materiality, color—can reveal, independent of its descriptive capacity. The works here... call to mind Matisse, Braque, and Leger in their cubist sensibility and handling of space."



I'm reminded of the illustrators of the Cooper Studio who, with the help of Murray Tinkelman, began falling under painter Reuben Tam's Abstract Expressionist spell at the very end of the 1950s. Here is Lionel Gilbert, another illustrator working through a period of tremendous upheaval in the commercial art business, embracing the change in a way that obviously made the most sense to him.



From Gilbert's bio at the Carrie Haddad Gallery: "As well as an artist, he was also a dedicated teacher, and taught painting throughout his career. He taught art at the 92nd Street Y Art Center, from 1967 to 2002, and offered classes for seniors since 1998"



Lionel Gilbert died in 2005. If there remains some mystery around his career as a professional illustrator, it's matched in my mind by his death notice, which was published in the New York Times and paid for not by his family, but by the 92nd Street Y Art Center, where he taught...



I'm encouraged that the notice mentions that Gilbert at least had some surviving family. Hopefully someone who knew him well will find this series of post some day and share further details about the illustration career of this talented artist.

* Many thanks to the Carrie Haddad Gallery for allowing me to quote some biographical information from their website and make use of some of Lionel Gilbert's artwork from their collection.

The gallery next exhibit, entitled "Under the Influence (of the New York School)", features Gilbert's abstract figuratives from the 60s. You can read the press release at this link.

Lionel Gilbert; Some Biographical Details

Lionel Gilbert was born in Newark, New Jersey,in 1912. The biographical information at the Carrie Haddad Gallery tells us he "fell in love with art at an early age [and] began his training when he was 12 in the Saturday children’s program of the Newark School of Fine & Industrial Art in 1924."Gilbert graduated in 1929 and moved to France, where he studied in Paris with Suzanne Valadon at the Academy Grand Chaumiere.



"The young artist returned to the US in 1938 and like many artists living during the Great Depression, Gilbert found that the best way to make ends meet was to become employed by the nation’s W.P.A program, creating large murals in many public buildings in the US. During WWII, he was sent to England as an official U.S. Air Force artist to portray various aspects of Air Force life."



My search of the Air Force Art Collection website turned up two small, poor quality images of Lionel Gilbert paintings, as well as some additional biographical details which may explain why there seems to be so few story illustration by the artist. Apparently Gilbert worked on "advertising illustrations for TWA, Canada Dry, Arrow Shirts, Burlington Mills, Lipton Soups, etc."



Lionel Gilbert may very well have focused his efforts on the more lucrative (but typically anonymous) ad assignments that were abundantly available to illustrators in those days.



That would explain why story illustrations by Gilbert are so relatively rare, in spite of his being associated with the high profile 'American Artists' group of illustrators during the 1950s. Above, for example, is an unsigned TWA ad from Collier's from the same period as when Gilbert was active. Could this be his work?



We'll probably never know. The fact is, there were so many talented illustrators working in such similar realistic styles that unless the work was signed or credited, it would be nearly impossible to tell.



Continued tomorrow

* Many thanks to the Carrie Haddad Gallery for allowing me to quote some biographical information from their website.

The gallery next exhibit, entitled "Under the Influence (of the New York School)", features Gilbert's abstract figuratives from the 60s. You can read the press release at this link.

Lionel Gilbert, "American Artist"

Recently, while flipping through some early '50s issues of Collier's magazines, I came upon this beautiful illustration by Lionel Gilbert.



On the following spread was another exceptional piece by the artist.



How could work this good have escaped my notice for all these years... and frankly, how could an illustrator of Gilbert's calibre remain so relatively underrepresented in the vast swath of publications in my collection? I have hundreds of magazines from the 1950s but only perhaps a dozen pieces by Lionel Gilbert; almost all of them for Collier's from 1950 - '56.



Upon further investigation in the back of several early '50s editions of the New York Art Directors Annual, I located Gilbert's name listed among the "American Artists" group of illustrators, represented by Celia, Sidney and Richard Mendelsohn.



There is Lionel Gilbert's signature at the very bottom of an impressive list of some true luminaries of the mid-20th century illustration business. The Mendelsohn's clearly had no problem getting in the door at all the biggest publishers because I've seen exponentially more work in my magazine collection by nearly everyone on that list. Why so few assignments for Lionel Gilbert?



Further research uncovered further revelations: here, as above is a typical Lionel Gilbert piece painted in 1955...



And here is one painted a decade later in 1965.



Clearly, something changed dramatically for Gilbert in the space of ten years.



This week, a look at the art of Lionel Gilbert, with some related biographical information.

Continued tomorrow

* Many thanks to the Carrie Haddad Gallery for allowing me to use some examples of Lionel Gilbert's abstract art from their website.

The gallery next exhibit, entitled "Under the Influence (of the New York School)", features Gilbert's abstract figuratives from the 60s. You can read the press release at this link.