forEword What is the difference between a graphic designer and a “fine artist,” between he who gives highway signs their typeface and she whose canvasses and sculptures live in museums where admission must be paid? In terms of talent, possibly none. The difference is one of intimacy. We gaze up at our favorite paintings, gingerly circumnavigate the greatest sculptures—we literally put them on pedestals. But we hug our favorite books and records, and kiss their covers, and a particular typeface will forever conjure the road-sign at the turnoff to the summer lodge, that last turn that led to nirvana, the last week of August, the summer after tenth grade. I don’t want to meet the artist (the painter, the sculptor, the violin prodigy, the rock star), for if I did, she’d probably disappoint, and if she didn’t, I’d be tongue-tied. But the graphic designer? I want to clasp him to me, and ask how he did it, and say Thank you. No need to invite George Corsillo into your living room and offer him a nip or a puff—he’s been there all along. He’s been in your album crate since the early 1980s, showcasing John and Olivia at their Grease-iest, Luther Vandross at his sultriest, Benatar, Mellencamp, Yoko. In his toolbox, George always brings his analog chops, learned with the legendary book-jacket designer Paul Bacon; nobody has that facility with typeface or silkscreening who grew up only on computers. He brings, too, a party- down fierceness, a willingness to get his hands dirty (on the Grease jacket, those are George’s teeth marks on the pencil), a scavenger’s resourcefulness (the legs on the Tilt cover? his wife, Susan’s), and a tactful deference to the artist, masking, as needed, Vandross’s girth or Benatar’s pregnancy. George’s book jackets would seem scattered in their sensibilities—could the same man have gone old-west for Lonesome Dove and New Wave, new-west for Less Than Zero? Apparently. But I’d argue they are both New Wave designs in their core, if we agree with George’s formulation that “New Wave is punk with a sense of humor and color.” Two plots, separated by a century, but each a violent melodrama set on the western edge of our country’s consciousness, each jacketed by a design that’s a little campy, a little smirky, a little reminder that a lot of rage can make a very good beach read. A book designed by George probably made the outline on your chest that didn’t get sunburned when you fell asleep. Why are George’s works so widely imitated? Because he looked at the bright-red mohawk on the dog-collared punk and saw the future. The fury with a cherry on top. And yeah, we can just call him “George.” He’s in our album crates, on our bookshelves, and now, with his stunning packaging for East Rock Brewing, drawing on motifs of WPA-era national-park posters, in our coolers. With George, you can listen to some tunes, read aloud from some books, and quaff some ale, keeping cool in both senses of the word. —Mark Oppenheimer, July 2019 1 Cover for “Stuff” artists’ promotional magazine - Los Angeles, 1979 George’s Greatest Hits George’s Greatest 46 GREASE Motion Picture Soundtrack RSO Records, 1978 First LP Art Direction job for Gribbitt! Los Angeles 47 Dolly Parton 9 TO 5 AND ODD JOBS RCA Records, 1980 Art Direction & Styling Photo: Ron Slenzak 50 56 BUGS TOMORROW, Casablanca Records, 1980 PAT BENATAR, Chrysalis Records, 1985 Luther Vandross, SONGS, Epic Records, 1994 Photos: Guzman and Alberto Tolot 65 Yoko Ono EVERY MAN HAS A WOMAN Mercury Records, 1984 Design & Illustration Grammy Nomination for Best Album Cover of 1984 50 Aurra, SATISFACTION, Family Groove Records, 2013 (Vinyl LP) 3 LESS THAN ZERO, Bret Easton Ellis 4 DIVA, Delacorta Simon and Schuster, 1985 Simon and Schuster, 1985 13 POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE, Carrie Fisher 7 FAMOUS FOR 15 MINUTES, Ultra Violet Simon and Schuster, 1987 Simon and Schuster, 1988 Acrylic on canvas 9 LONESOME DOVE, Larry McMurtry, Simon and Schuster, 1985 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize 73 THE LONESOME JUBILEE John Mellencamp Mercury Records, 1987 Photo: Skeeter Hagler 75 MR. HAPPY GO LUCKY (CD package), John Mellencamp Mercury Records, 1996 Photo: Mary Ellen Mark Devil and Jesus photos: James McLoughlin WAR, MYTH, DESIRE Four book set, David Levinthal George Eastman Museum and Kehrer Books, 2019 WAR GAMES HHH HHH CORCORAN GALLERYOFART WAR GAMES - DAVID LEVINTHAL Dave Hickey is an American art and cultural David Levinthal, a central figure in critic. His books include The Invisible the history of American postmodern Dragon: Four Essays On Beauty and Air photography, stages uncanny tableaux for Guitar: Essays On Art And Democracy . the camera, using collectible figures and Hickey is the former Executive Editor constructed dioramas. This book, which of Art in America, and has published his accompanies the 2013 Corcoran Gallery of Art exhibition David Levinthal: War Games , writing in Artforum, Parkett, Interview, # 978-3-86828-412-6 Art Issues, and The Village Voice, among features the artist’s work about war, a others. He has recently served as a subject he has addressed at intervals Professor at the University of Nevada, throughout his career. Levinthal’s Las Vegas and at the University of New groundbreaking project Hitler Moves East Mexico. Hickey was awarded a MacArthur (1975–77), a series of imagined scenes Fellowship in 2001. from World War II’s Russian front, became a touchstone for a generation of conceptual Paul Roth is Senior Curator and Director artists beginning to produce fictional, of Photography and Media Arts at the mimetic scenes to be photographed. Wild Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, H West (1987–2012), perhaps his best-known D.C. Among his exhibitions are Charlotte 978-3-86828-412-6 KEHRER body of work, stages vignettes from the Dumas: Anima (2012), Edward Burtynsky: American Indian Wars, filtered through Oil (2009), Richard Avedon: Portraits the nostalgic mythos of Hollywood of Power (2008), and Sally Mann: What westerns. World of War (1991-95) revels Remains (2004). He is co-editor of the in the artificiality of 1950s playsets, survey Gordon Parks: Collected Works re-enacting moments from the American (Steidl Verlag, 2012). Revolutionary War, the Battle of the Alamo in the Texas Revolution, and the Kaitlin Booher is Assistant Curator American Civil War. Mein Kampf (1993– of Photography and Media Arts at the 94) luridly re-enacts Adolph Hitler’s Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, theatrical rallies as well as horrifying D.C. She has organized the exhibitions scenes from the Holocaust. The artist’s The Deep Element: Photography at the recent project I.E.D. (2008) echoes Beach (2012) and Richard Gordon: Meta contemporary embedded news imagery of Photographs (2010). U.S. military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. David Levinthal was born in San Francisco, California in 1949. He lives and works in New York City. WAR GAMES Book jacket, David Levinthal Cover Illustration by George Corsillo, Kehrer Books, 2013 35 LE TOUR DE JAVA, G.B. Trudeau 36 JAVA PIPELINE, G.B. Trudeau Doonesbury @ Starbucks Poster, 1999 Doonesbury @ Starbucks Poster, 1998 37 THE BUZZ PROJECT, G.B. Trudeau 38 MONTE GRANDE, G.B. Trudeau Doonesbury @ Starbucks Poster, 2000 Doonesbury @ Starbucks Poster, 1999 41 The 1990 Doonesbury Stamp Album, G.B.Trudeau & George EXHIBITION GUIDE Corsillo, 1990 (Last of the “cut & paste” mechanicals) 42 Doonesbury at War, Rolling Stone cover, 2004 1 Cover for “Stuff” artists’ magazine - LA, 1979 43 Adirondack Wildlife, Saranac Lake Winter Carnival 2 The Breaks, Richard Price, Simon & Schuster 1979 poster by G.B.Trudeau & George Corsillo, 2017 (first New Wave cover for art director Frank Metz) 44 South Hampton Writers Conference poster, 2016 3 Less Than Zero, Bret Easton Ellis, S&S, 1985 45 Lonesome Dove, 4’x6’ acrylic painting George Corsillo 4 /5 Diva and Nana, Delecorta, S&S, 1985 with Frank Bruckmann, 2019 6 Memphis, Richard Horn, Fireside Books, 1985 46 Grease, LP cover, Casablanca records, 1978 7 Famous for 15 Minutes, Ultra Violet, S&S, 1988 47 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs, Dolly Parton, 1980 8 Popism, Andy Warhol & Pat Hackett, HBJ Books,1990 48 Tilt Music, Parachute Records, 1978 9 Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry, S&S 1985 Photo: Ron Slenzak, Tightrope model: Susan McCaslin 10 Texas Monthly -On the set of Lonesome Dove, 1988 49 Jefferson Starship Gold, RCA Records, 1979 11 Texasville, Larry McMurtry, S&S, 1985 50 Bugs Tomorrow, Casablanca Records, 1980 Color pencil iIllustration 51 Rock’s New Wave, Newsweek cover original sketch, 1980 12 Cadillac Jack, Larry McMurtry, 52 Mercury Shoes, Jesse Barish, RCA Records, 1980 Before and after the publication of Lonesome Dove 53 Times Square, Soundtrack LP, RSO Records, 1980 13 Postcards from the Edge, Carrie Fisher, S&S, 1987 54 Don’t Let Our Dreams Die Young, Tom Jones, Acrylic painting, and the 1999 computer version Mercury Records, 1983 14 Surrender the Pink, Carrie Fisher, S&S, 1987 55 Another View, Velvet Underground, Verve, 1990 15 Wired-The Short Life & Fast Times of John Belushi, 56 Pat Benatar, Poster, Chrysalis, 1985 Bob Woodward, S&S, 1987 57 Tropico, Pat Benatar, LP cover, Chrysalis, 1984 16 Mid Century Modern, Cara Greenberg, Crown,1984 58 Temporary Heroes, Pat Benatar, Chrysalis, 1984 17 Time & Tide, Thomas Fleming, S&S, 1987 Hand-colored photo Colored pencil illustration + note from Frank Metz 59 Jammin’ In Manhattan, Tyzik, Polydor, 1984 18 In La-La Land We Trust, Robert Campbell, 1986 60 Live From Earth, Pat Benatar, Chrysalis, 1984 19 The I Was a Teenage, Juvenile Delinquent, Rock’n’Roll Horror, Beach Party, Movie Book, 61 Give Me the Reason, Luther Vandross, Epic Records, 1986 Alan Betrock, St.