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R.O. Blechman's Career Has Spanned Illustration, Graphic Design and Film

R.O. Blechman's Career Has Spanned Illustration, Graphic Design and Film

Interview and introduction by Matt Willey. Photographs by FIRMMaria Spann GRASP ON A

SHAKYR.O. Blechman’s career has spanned , and film-making. His deceptively LINE simple style masks a fierce intellect.

36 Eye 95/18 Eye 95/18 37 Blechman’s first book,The Juggler of Our Lady, was published Previous page. One of Matt Willey: You were born in in 1930. Tell me a little Months later my mother asked me, ‘Buddy,’ Blechman’s weekly spot about some your early memories. (that was my nickname), ‘Buddy, did you ever hear for poetry in in 1953. Made in a single evening, that book (a graphic novel R. O. Blechman: I was born a year after that great from that art school?’ The Times Magazine, before the term existed) established a way of working that which he has been doing since storm, the Depression, struck. But there was no ‘Yeah.’ has remained remarkably consistent over a career now the title’s 2015 redesign. sign of it on East 26th Street, Brooklyn. None. ‘So what happened?’ (Knowing full well they This image is for From the The men all went to work, ties neatly knotted on couldn’t have accepted me.) well in to its seventh decade. It is an extraordinary career. King by Nick Makoha, 2017. their shirts, Stetsons set firmly on their heads, ‘They took me.’ A career so wide ranging in its output and achievements that it becomes nigh Below. Spot illustration for the the wives setting up tables for their regular games ‘So you’ll go.’ R.O. poem Remaking the Music impossible to summarise. (I would gently urge you to seek out a copy of his Box by Geoffrey Hilsabeck, of Mah Jongg, and us kids playing stickball with our ‘I suppose.’ published in The New York homemade bats – broomsticks with their brushes Maybe the reason I applied to art school was my 1980 book R. O. Blechman, Behind the Lines, which includes a foreword by his Times Magazine, 2017. sawed off. No, life was good in our little suburban- next-door neighbour. She was a young, blonde, friend .) Blechman, known as Bob to his friends, is many things – like kingdom. The only interruption to our routine very beautiful, very Bohemian, French lady who was when a long shadow lazily drifted over us, happened to be an accomplished painter. She had an illustrator, a , a film-maker, a designer, a writer – but above all he a Zeppelin returning to its home base covered every wall in her apartment with scenes of is one of the great storytellers. in . Central Park (we were living in an apartment house Blechman’s trembling and unsteady-seeming line is instantly recognisable I guess I was taught that I was special. facing the park). One of her murals had a donkey My mother considered me a Blechman, the son painted over a light switch – the switch located in as his and his alone. It is a gentle style of drawing, tentative and honest, and it of a father who owned a big Dry Goods Store the donkey’s ass. I was sometimes asked to turn the can be disarmingly direct. The drawings appear utterly benign and that somehow in lower (the building now houses light on. Now if this was art, this was for me! seems to allow them to sidestep some process within your thinking, a process with Scholastic Publications). At 5pm every day, But did I ever think that I would become an while the ladies were shouting Buff, Boom, Crack artist? No. That never entered my head, not until which other drawings must negotiate, and affect you emotionally – more directly. (or whatever those Chinese words were for Mah college. It was only in college that I began to draw It’s a trick of sorts, one that allows a mild-mannered man to get close enough, Jongg), I was dealing with Aleph, Bet, Gimmel, – political cartoons for the college newspaper, the letters taught in Hebrew School. I was a bad, occasional posters, a cover for the literary magazine, through sheer benevolence, to wallop you over the head with an idea. or I suppose an indifferent, student. Who needed and once, murals for a school dance – murals that Few storytellers are able to deliver such emotional clout with such simplicity. to learn that crazy language? And so I didn’t, covered every wall of the gymnasium. Fewer still are able to wrap up complicated notions of humour, politics or not well at least – although once I astonished Miss Berkson when I effortlessly translated a Hebrew I presumeThe Juggler of Our Lady put you on the map anger in just a few carefully considered, juddering lines. That economy of line passage as if it were a page from Doctor Dolittle. to a certain extent? (it is often hard to imagine a way in which his drawings could be reduced any That seemed to be a pattern in my life, that The Korean War (euphemistically termed ‘The further) only works because the drawings are underpinned by a fierce intelligence. sudden explosion of energy and creativity. Conflict’) was raging, but I was never sent to Korea. I remember one year in summer camp, I guess I was That’s a long story, which I’ll go into later. For now, Almost as unique as the line itself is the fact that a style of drawing so simple and six or seven years old, I put on a one-person show I’ll speak about what happened when I graduated so singular could be so powerfully effective for so long. Sendak noted ‘It is, at first (Me!) for the entire camp. I promoted it, wrote it, college (majoring in literature and history, with glance, a dangerous style for an artist to lock into. It’s so specific, so special; where found material for it, put on my own make-up, a minor in art history – no studio art classes at all). and then performed it. Solo. All the while, the My book The Juggler of Our Lady came out in can you go from there? Blechman’s refinement of that style – the paradox of his pennies I had collected for admission, which I had 1953, soon after I graduated college. It received further condensing his miniature hieroglyphs to draw larger meanings – is a marvel.’ piled on a nearby piano, were rapidly disappearing a lot of hoopla – things like a front page write-up The apparent simplicity of Blechman’s work, or rather the assumed ease with – taken by a few of the kids. But did I care? You bet in the book review section of a major New York your life I didn’t. Not when it was me on that stage, newspaper, The Herald Tribune. I suppose Oxford which the drawings appear to be created, is deceptive. Each line is scrutinised and me, dancing, singing, strutting, speaking. University Press knew about it because they deliberated over and, often, done again and again until it is right, until it works. commissioned me to illustrate an edition of the Did you draw as a kid? Were there any early signs of what you Broadway play Harvey. As I look at those Harvey The fact that the drawings then present themselves as effortless little scribbles would eventually end up doing? Or was there something that drawings now, I shudder. My lines – rigid, lifeless, is one of the more remarkable things about his talent. you wanted to be when you grew up? no character to them at all. I tried different things When I met the artist and writer in Dublin, his eyes lit up I had no real interest in drawing, not as a kid. – sometimes drawing with a pencil, liking the Sure I drew Stukas and Spitfires in dogfights, graphite quality that gave me, even adopting Ben when I mentioned Blechman. ‘Bob is one of the great gentlemen of life!’ he said, and sure I copied comic-strip characters, but I did Shahn’s stitched line, a look that was then popular raising a glass of red wine. He added later, by phone: ‘Bob measures all of his words. these as much to show off as to amuse myself. among illustrators. Eventually I settled on my now I was no or who just trademark shaky line, a look partly natural, partly Whatever he says absolutely reflects what he thinks. He is intellectually honest had to draw, who couldn’t keep their hands off contrived. Then the draft caught up with me, with himself and with the world he lives in … He is a man of integrity.’ crayons or paint. Not me. and I traded my pen and pencil for a rifle. On one of my first visits to meet Bob, some time in the spring of 2014, If I was fascinated by any art form, it was film. I built ‘theatres’, shoeboxes where I would turn I remember you telling me a story about bumping into the he picked me up from Wassaic train station in a bottle-green ’96 Volvo 940 a handmade crank to move strips of images, designer and illustrator Bob Gill at a bus station, and how that with license plates that read ink tank. We drove to his house hand-drawn or cut from a Sunday newspaper turned out to be a fortuitous chance encounter. talking about , Robert Brownjohn and the comic, past an open ‘screen’. But did I think Could you remind me what happened? Fiction magazine Story (originally of becoming a film-maker? Never. That was Since I was now eligible to get killed in Korea I published from 1931-67) was revived weather – there was a storm coming. On subsequent trips beyond my imagining. decided, what the hell, I’d try my hand at selling in 1989 by Richard and Lois Rosenthal. Blechman designed every cover from I took a tape recorder with me, but lacked the discipline Here’s the crazy thing. As a thirteen-year old, the cartoons I had done for my college newspaper. its relaunch to its closure in 1999 with now living in Manhattan, I applied to the High That and other work I had done in college, posters, the Winter 2000 issue, above. to make those recordings work as meaningful interviews. School of Music and Art, even though my art brochures, the not-too-good cover for the literary I rather enjoyed it when our conversations meandered teacher in Junior High School refused to write magazine, things like that. Returning to Manhattan, off to wherever conversations tend to when you’re not a letter of recommendation for me. And how could I was in the Greyhound Bus Terminal when she? I was unable to copy photographs from somebody shouted, ‘Stop! Don’t move. Stay there.’ worrying about a tape recorder. This interview was, The National Geographic magazine. But I applied, It turned out to be Bob Gill. He was drawing me eventually, conducted by email. handed in a portfolio, and took the examination. for his sketchbook.

38 Eye 95/18 Eye 95/18 39 Gill, as it happened, was a classmate of mine ‘Well, Charlie Watts was being interviewed. With this 1959 handbook for employees from the High School of Music and Art, somebody And he said, “I have two heroes in my life. of broadcaster CBS, Blechman made I hadn’t seen in four years. and the cartoonist, R. O. Blechman, an important but potentially boring official publication (an explanation of the CBS ‘Bob,’ I asked him, ‘Why are you doing who I hear is still alive and drawing.” ’ Comprehensive Medical Insurance Plan this drawing?’ That got me up, and fast! When we bought for eligible employees and their dependents) ‘It’s an assignment. Something for Seventeen his CD, From One Charlie, we noticed that there into a gripping visual narrative, complete magazine.’ was a booklet included in the album, a small with witty information graphics. When I learned that I asked if I could show graphic novel written and drawn by Watts as a him my artwork. tribute to Charlie Parker. That got me thinking, ‘Sure,’ he said, handing me his business card ‘Why not animate the story?’ So my producer called (a business card!) ‘Sure. We can meet.’ Watts’s agent, and a meeting was set up in London. A day or so later he gave me a list of people to see. Now here’s the back story. How did Watts learn One of them was a designer who specialised in book about me? Before Watts was a member of the jackets. Soon I met the designer, and because he was Rolling Stones, he was a guy in the bullpen of connected to publishers I showed him a picturebook a small London advertising agency, Charles I had done for a college seminar in humour. Hobson (described by Gill, then the agency’s head My picturebook, Titus Fortunatus, or Why Rome Fell, art director, as a ‘hack agency’ – Gill was never one was done as the final thesis for the seminar. to mince words). Gill must have shown Watts my (Incidentally, I received a B–, the lowest grade book The Juggler of Our Lady. Now Watts and Gill in the class, although that B– was shared by one other had more than art in common. They were both student, William Goldman, the screenwriter for practising musicians. Gill’s mother was a piano Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – ironic, as we were teacher, and Gill himself was an accomplished the only students in the class who went on to careers jazz pianist who, as a teenager, played the in our respective fields.) Catskills hotel circuit. The designer suggested that I show my book Occasionally Gill would play the piano, and to an editor at the publishing house, Henry Holt. Watts the drums, at agency events. And on more At Holt, the editor said that he could only publish than one occasion Gill told me he would tell Watts picturebooks with holiday themes. He probably said (real Gill-speak, this): ‘Forget this agency stuff. this to get rid of me, but that night I called a college You’re too dumb to be a designer. You ought to be a friend of mine and asked if he knew of any holiday- drummer.’ And that’s how the Stones got Rolling. related stories. As it happened, he did – a story about Now here’s how I tried to get my Parker film a juggler, set in the Middle Ages. rolling. I realised early on that Watts’s Charlie The next night, a copy of Anatole France’s Parker story, and his drawings, weren’t making The Juggler of Our Lady in front of me, and a copy of it for me, that I really had to do my own Charlie Artwork from Blechman’s 56-minute Will Durant’s Age of Faith, next to me for research, Parker film, that it had to be with my own drawings. version of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du I drew the book. And a few days later I surprised the Watts agreed, and I put pen to paper and did Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale), made by his studio The Ink Tank for PBS’s editor by showing up with my version. The book was a storyboard called Bird in Flight, a double entendre Great Performances series in 1984. accepted for publication. Pure luck! If Gill hadn’t – Parker as a high-flying musician and Parker as an The violinist soldier is repeatedly tempted been at the Greyhound station on an assignment for addict. Since Parker was called ‘Bird’ I drew all by the devil, voiced by Swedish actor Seventeen magazine to draw a young passenger … my characters as animals of one kind or another. Max von Sydow. Blechman has said that if that young passenger didn’t happen to be me … Not a bad notion, and one that allowed me to play The Soldier’s Tale was ‘one of the most gratifying things I was able to do.’ if Gill hadn’t been my high school classmate … if Gill with reality (something I’d wanted to do, since D. B. Dowd writes: ‘Blechman’s film hadn’t given me the one name of the one person who I had a political agenda about the Kansas City enriches Stravinsky with range and wit. knew the one editor who might have been interested scene that I wanted to utilise). The story, about a Faustian trade — a violin in what I had done as a college thesis … if I hadn’t A few meetings took place that year, maybe two for a life of ease — supplies several turns called the one friend who had given me just the right in London, as many in New York, with Watts even of fate. Stravinsky’s music samples early story to draw … etc, etc, etc. You get the picture. mentioning at one point that his friend, Clint twentieth-century styles, and Blechman’s film plays along. As always with Blechman, Eastwood, might want to get involved. But when the modesty of the drawing belies his And wasn’t there a story about Bob Gill and Charlie Watts Watts, at one of our meetings, asked me: ‘Bob, ambition. The directorial vision ranges working at the same advertising agency? Then a further why do you want me in this film?’ I should have from the pastoral to the Palladian, connection to Charlie Watts and you a couple of decades later? known, poof!, it was all over. from Constructivism to Tenebrism to When you ask about Bob Gill and Charlie Watts [of Art Deco, with visual quotations that range from Jean Arp to . Like its You once told me that you consider yourself a film-maker ] what you’re really asking about is source, the film engages questions of moral my life in film, so here it is. I had an animation more than anything else, and that it was with some regret cost, yet retains a generosity of spirit.’ studio for 27 years, The Ink Tank. During that time that you were being interviewed as an illustrator. On 22 April 2018, the film will be screened I managed to produce two 60-minute programmes Is that a deep-seated regret? with live ensemble in Manchester, UK. for PBS [Public Broadcasting Service], a few short Now here’s where I goofed – big time. Here’s where films, and dozens and dozens of commercials (and I threw away my chance to become a full time, not many of them stupid, either). But my dream professionally trained, film-maker, threw away a project was always to do an animated feature, career-changing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. something that had always eluded me. And at times After basic training in the army, I received my MOS I came close. [Military Occupational Specialty] which assigned There was the time a friend telephoned me me to a special arm of the military. The arm? early in the morning. ‘Bob, did you hear NPR The best. The greatest. The most unreal. An [National Public Radio] this morning?’ assignment to go to film school in . ‘Not at …’ (looking at my alarm clock) ‘… New York, my city, my home. And to learn film. ten before eight.’ My dream!

40 Eye 95/18 Eye 95/18 41 Left. R. O. Blechman (photographed and George Lois (Eye 29). We played at a midtown Our paths crossed professionally in 1972. by Maria Spann) at work in his studio, YMCA. Afterwards, we treated ourselves I was then producing a Christmas special for PBS, a converted outhouse with woodburning to ice-cream sodas at a corner drug store. and I used one of Maurice’s Christmas cards as the stove and kitchen in the grounds of the farm he and his wife Moisha moved Bj was then at the design agency Brownjohn, opening sequence. The soundtrack was created to in 1980, in Ancram, Columbia Chermayeff & Geismar. One of their clients was by a good friend and marvellous composer, County, New York. Craft Horizonsmagazine. For the Christmas holiday Arnold Black, and I was so impressed when ‘He tends to start work at 10am and issue, Bj took sheets of Christmas wrapping paper, Maurice congratulated him, not merely for the continues until his wife, Moisha, and bound them into the magazine. What a wild, musical setting of his film segment, but for its calls to say that dinner is ready,’ writes Matt Willey. ‘Although Bob is crazy, festive, and totally appropriate idea – an ‘Schubertian’ sensibility. Schubertian? But Maurice at his studio seven days a week he actual craft in a crafts magazine! Bj later left knew his composers. Self-taught, he was no says most of his work consists of getting for London, one of a large group of American intellectual slouch.We met several years later. ideas when he’s not at his desk.’ designers who found jobs there. I met Bj I can’t remember the occasion except that Maurice in London – this was in 1960, during my European had done a watercolour and wanted my opinion. honeymoon. Gone was the rail-thin person I knew ‘My opinion? Maurice, it’s fabulous.’ in New York. No basketball for him now. Not for He hugged me. I could not believe that he a Sydney Greenstreet lookalike. doubted the worth of that watercolour (it was He briefly returned to the , fabulous). Years later I read something he had said and when we met borrowed $20 from me. about his work. ‘A little part of me whispers it’s no Tony Palladino and I were then in a short-lived good.’ I suppose you can leave the shtetl of Brooklyn design partnership, Blechman and Palladino. (as he once described his birthplace, his first Bj visited us and gave Tony a large wooden period language was Yiddish), but the shtetl can never [full stop], beautifully gilded. He gave me a cracked completely leave you. wooden comma, its gold already flaking. I now no longer have it, but periods and commas have What pieces of your work are you most fond of? entered more than one of my designs and drawings. My favourites go all over the place, ranging from graphic stories to watercolours (my favourite And what about Maurice Sendak? medium). Sometimes I find myself amazed at how So what did I do? (I’m breaking into a cold sweat studies – so different from the drawings in his Below. Thanksgiving place card for Moisha. One of my friends was Maurice Sendak – although, good some of them turn out. (‘Did I do that?’) as I write this.) I turned it down. Flatly. And why? children’s books. He later brought it all together Nicholas Blechman writes: ‘When it comes as he once wrote of our friendship, ‘Bob and I are In 1989 I received a telephone call from the Because I was told that once I finished film school in his for , to wrapping presents, nobody spends typical colleagues / friends – we hardly see each publisher of , a magazine which was launched Das Grosse Liederbuch more time, or is as much of a perfectionist, Story I would be sent to the war zone, not with a rifle, exquisitely rendered illustrations of songs as my father. For birthday celebrations other …’. I remember meeting him at his home, in the , died in the 1960s (the advent of but with a camera. Which was nonsense, of course. from his Alsatian childhood. or Christmas, he not only meticulously a brownstone on a tiny Greenwich Village street. television?), but was revived decades later by an And here’s the kicker – I believed it. Sometimes Every Thanksgiving, Tomi would hold wraps gifts in unusual papers, but also His apartment took me aback. This was the early Ohio-based publishing entrepreneur, Richard I think God gave me three legs. Two to walk with, a dinner for his bachelor friends. The dinners always includes an original pen-and-ink 1950s, and all my friends’ apartments (for those few Rosenthal. His family had founded Portfolio one to trip myself up with. were very formal, with finger bowls, crystal knife drawing. Witty, simple, graphic, not living at home) had walls exposed to the brick, magazine. He asked if he could buy some of my I treasure these cards.’ Here’s another instance of that third leg in rests, and hand-drawn place cards. Each card had and candles stuck in old Chianti bottles. But not pick-up art to use as a cover for his magazine. action. Shortly after having finished my production a drawing of a roast turkey on a platter, its shapely Maurice. No, his home had wood panelling, and his I said, ‘No. I’ll do something original for you.’ of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat [The Soldier’s drumsticks sporting ladies’ shoes. Pure Ungerer. furnishings might have been out of a ‘But I can only give you an honorarium. $100.’ Tale], I received a telephone call from a lady with I wish I had kept them. novel. I later learned that he was a collector of ‘I’ll take it.’ a heavy German accent. She explained that she Which reminds me of other cards I never kept Henry James first editions. Why so quick? Because I love doing graphic was the wife of the late H. A. Rey, the author and – from a neighbour, Andy Warhol. He was then We were both starting out then, and I suppose design work, a welcome change from illustration. illustrator of the Curious George books, a series doing illustrations for I. Miller Shoes. His mailings it was around 1959 that Maurice surprised me by My association with Story began a relationship which I loved, and loved reading to my kids at consisted of stylised shoes, each coloured by hand. asking, ‘How do I break into advertising?’ I suppose in which I did every single cover for them – every bedtime. Now she also had a love. She loved, He drew them using the stitched line of , his lifestyle was such that he needed more income one – during its ten-year lifespan. Incidentally, in a just loved, my treatment of the Stravinsky. then popular with illustrators. As soon as they than his children’s books provided. Well, I gave him short while that $100 a cover turned into $1,200, Would I consider animating a feature film based arrived in my mail I would toss them out. a list of art directors and agencies, but I doubt that but that was my least reward. My best was working on her late husband’s books? Those cute shoes! Those cute angels and butterflies! he ever assembled a portfolio or even visited for somebody with a good eye and an open mind. I said no. Now why? Here’s why … After having Not for me, thank you. Into the trash can they went. a single agency. Soon enough his books caught Moral: if money speaks, sometimes it pays animated the work of Igor Stravinsky’s soldier, Tomi had a studio on 42nd Street, off Broadway. on and he became a solid citizen on Easy Street. to wear ear plugs. was I going to animate a monkey? Not me. At the time – the late 1960s – this was a crime- Not when my heart was set on animating a ridden street, the seediest in all of Manhattan. Partially collaged family holiday card panoramic epic set in ancient Rome, The Golden But he had a splendid suite of rooms in a 1920s from the 1980s, signed by all the family (Blechman, Moisha, Nicholas and Max). Ass – a project that ended up with no more than skyscraper. His two rooms were covered with The card is based on Blechman’s identity a few minutes of (glorious, as it happened) studio- walnut panelling and the entire fourth floor, design for the British film company BFCS. funded animation. Of course, if I had agreed to his studio, was surrounded by an ornately Fellow cartoonist and graphic author Seth animate Curious George, I wouldn’t be stuck in my carved wrap-around stone balcony. (pen name of Gregory Gallant, a Canadian country home (a hundred long miles from New Rumour had it that the floor cartoonist), wrote that Blechman’s work York City), typing this out. No, I would be reclining was originally occupied ‘is an embodiment of the less-is-more by my Hollywood pool. Ouch! That third leg! by Florenz Ziegfield maxim … This is cartooning boiled down to its elemental form … Blechman’s lines (of the Ziegfield Follies). do not represent real people — they are Tell me about some of your contemporaries. As well as Gill, Every Friday a group of real people.’ it’s a formidable troupe — Robert Brownjohn, George Lois, us would meet for a game , Tomi Ungerer and so on. of basketball. Tony Palladino Tomi Ungerer and I crossed paths often, either was a regular, as was Robert in Manhattan or the Hamptons where he had a Brownjohn (Bj to all his summer place. Once I saw his summer sketchbook, friends, see Eye 04), and amazed at the meticulously rendered nature occasionally, Bob Gill (Eye 33)

42 Eye 95/18 Eye 95/18 43 NO!, The Dial Press, 1962. Nicholas Franklin the Fly, Creative Editions, 2007, Blechman writes, ‘One of Bob’s earliest is a children’s book about a philosophical cartoon narratives is an exquisite, fly from New York City. Franklin later saves very small, black-and-white book, like a a country-dwelling butterfly from capture children’s book for adults, which includes by bothering a net-wielding collector. the story of a man who compulsively says “NO!”. When his boss asks him to “tell production to run off 200 bolts of Number 87”, John replies “NO!”. I’ve always loved this one-man protest against the system.’

44 Eye 95/18 Eye 95/18 45 You say one thing and your In an era of flat, cheap TV cartoons, R. O. Blechman stomach says another … offered the subtlety and humanity of an earlier era Gentlemen! The draughtsman’s characters — films that were genuinely animated, writes You’ve obviously never tried Alka-Seltzer. D. B. Dowd, whose library at Washington University Blechman’s Ink Tank made in St. Louis holds Blechman’s Ink Tank archive. that were subtle, He founded his The Ink Tank in 1977. At the time, he had worked in animation for literate and humane more than a decade, having been apprenticed into the field at Storyboard Inc., under the great , a co-founder of UPA, a landmark studio of the era. Blechman’s work was introduced to audiences through broadcast bumpers and animated spots. One notable commercial, for Alka-Seltzer (voiced by Gene Wilder at his neurotic best), featured a disgruntled man and his agitated stomach in a therapy session. That ad — a classic — captured Blechman’s gift for persuasive characterisation, incongruously delivered through a broken line that threatened to fall apart any minute. But Blechman had bigger ambitions. He wanted to direct animated features, to envision sequences and realise scripts at a larger scale. The had been an uncertain decade for American animation. The era of the well financed animated short (Bugs Bunny, ) was long gone, and next-wave CGI was in its infancy: Disney’s Tron would debut five years later. Ralph Bakshi’s Now you can’t expect him wayward animated fantasy Wizards was released to give up the food he loves. Man does not live the year Blechman launched The Ink Tank. by bread alone … Hanna-Barbera was still dominant as a producer of clunky animated television shows. Blechman’s animation work would be recognised as subtle, literate and humane — everything that most broadcast animation at the time was not. Among his first major projects as a director was Simple Gifts, a Christmas television special produced for CBS in 1977-78. The programme included six independent story segments, most memorably a charming animated prologue by Maurice Sendak; a telling of the First World War Christmas truce of 1914 by illustrator James And you! When you eat spicy McMullan; and Blechman’s own ‘No Room at the Inn’, foods, when you over-eat, help your stomach out. a wry version of the Nativity. Alka-Seltzer has alkalis that In 1984 would come his major work The Soldier’s will calm your upset stomach Tale, an animated treatment for PBS of Igor and neutralise excess acidity. Stravinsky’s music-theatre piece, which won It even has a pain releiver an Emmy award. That film, equal parts folk-tale for your head … and corporate allegory, is characterised by imaginative conception, visual richness and savvy pacing (see p.40). A proper appreciation of Blechman’s film work would locate him in a draughtsmanly tradition that goes back to Winsor McCay, that pioneer of the field. McCay’s animation work (How a Mosquito You take care of him, Left.When you and Right. Season’s Greetings Operates, 1912; , 1914; and he won’t bother you. your stomach don’t agree, from CBS broadcast bumper, The Sinking of the Lusitania, 1918) is dominated a 60-second animated spot CBS, 1966. Drawn by by the style and touch of his drawing. for Alka-Seltzer, 1967. R. O. Blechman, animated Drawn and animated by by Willis Pyle. Snow falls and his goose-necked progeny required no such R. O. Blechman. Produced as birds sing on a pine. sophistication, so hordes of in-betweeners could by Jack Tinker & Partners A woodsman walks up to the be hired to bang out frames in production. Advertising. A man and his tree carrying a saw, and we McCay recoiled from the slapstick industrialisation stomach visit a therapist fear a violent harvest. of the field. In his era, Blechman represents to settle their differences. But suddenly the man bends McCay-like subtlety and respect for audiences’ Voice-over by Gene Wilder. his saw into an instrument, produces a bow, and plays intelligence in the production of animated film. a verse of ‘God Rest Ye His quivering drawings, which seem so slight at first Merry Gentlemen.’ glance, turn out to be supple things indeed.

46 Eye 95/18 Eye 95/18 47 MAY 14, 1990 MAY APRIL 29, 1974 OCTOBER 31, 1977 DECEMBER 22, 1975 EUSTACIA TILLEY, 1996 TILLEY, EUSTACIA MARCH 1977 7, OCTOBER 1, 1979

Between 1974 and 1996, R. O. Blechman buildings converted into windmills. Many of his covers pay homage to the ‘December 17, 1990’ shows classical Blechman did not limit himself up to the changes she was seeking. and dowdy,’ says Blechman. created fifteenNew Yorker covers, ‘After I did that first New Yorker city he clearly loves. ‘December 22, 1975’, statues entwined with tinsel and lights. to commemorating yearly milestones, A mid-February anniversary issue ‘And I appreciated Françoise saying, R. O.’s New Yorkers many of which have become famously cover, I slept for a week,’ says which shows the city encapsulated in In ‘January 2, 1978’, a child peeks through though. ‘July 21, 1975’ pokes fun at was coming up and many wanted us “Well, wait a minute, Eustace Tilley Blechman celebrated iconic, including his first and last, Blechman. ‘It just took it out of me … a snow globe, remains a classic. a celestial curtain at the coming of the a group of lawn-conscious neighbours. to adhere to tradition and reprint the doesn’t look so great himself!”’ write Genevieve Bormes, Covers I’ve since recovered,’ he laughs. ‘October 1, 1979’ shows the gem-like New Year. ‘November 2, 1981’ shows ‘October 7, 1991’ depicts The Thinker, original Regency dandy known as R. O. Blechman’s image of the city’s high days Associate, and Françoise Mouly, ‘I was responding to fuel shortages lights of the city at night, while ‘October eager trick-or-treaters as seen through a symbol of man’s intelligence. Eustace Tilley, drawn by Rea Irvin Eustacia had everything that makes Art Editor, . throughout the city. I thought, well, 31, 1977’ shows the sky filled with the eyes of a Jack-o’-lantern [a carved However Blechman’s man, unlike for the magazine’s first issue in 1925. his work so memorable: wit and and holidays with The first, ‘April 29, 1974’ (note: New New Amsterdam had it right. aircraft, ranging from early airplanes pumpkin face]. ‘July 2, 1984’ and ‘July 7, Auguste Rodin’s famous statue, We approached many artists, concision. It was a perfect match wit and concision Yorker covers didn’t receive titles until Bring back the windmills and we’ll to hot-air balloons to an alien ship. 1986’ celebrate the 4th of July. One of is replaced by a robot. but Blechman’s ‘Eustacia’ was one to Rea Irvin’s archetypal original the era of ’s editorship, from have a nice new energy source. ‘March 7, 1977’ shows a whimsical our favourites, ‘May 14, 1990’, celebrates Blechman’s last cover was of the few that gathered consensus cover. And, like all of Blechman’s 1992-98, so until then they are known by This is long before it ever became hand-glider at the beginning of spring. Mother’s Day with a wry portrayal of published when the stakes were high, around the office. contributions, it helped the their cover dates), depicts the New York an urgent undertaking to find new Other covers offer a playful take on Whistler’s Mother (aka Arrangement in back in 1996. Tina Brown was editor ‘I recall when I did the “Eustacia magazine navigate a new era, City skyline, including the recently energy sources. So I guess I was a bit holidays. On the ‘December 19, 1988’ Grey and Black No.1 , 1871), unmoved then, and many die-hard New Yorker Tilley” cover, there were objections without losing any of its charm erected World Trade Center, with all its in advance of the times.’ cover, a Christmas tree goes rogue. by the gifts piled at her feet. staffers and readers were loath to open to the fact that she looked old and sophistication. JULY 7, 1986 JULY 7, JULY 2, 1984 JULY 21, 1975 OCTOBER 1991 7, JANUARY 2, 1978 NOVEMBER 2, 1981 NOVEMBER 2, DECEMBER 17, 1990 DECEMBER 17, DECEMBER 19, 1988

48 Eye 95/18 Eye 95/18 49 During the 1940s and 50s, Norman and conformity was its death knell. Above. A Museum Mile, poster, 1981. Rockwell and the members of the Gradually venerated realism lost its Blechman packs all the highlights of The anti-Rockwell ‘Famous Artists School’ of realistic, popularity. It became turgidly obvious, New York’s famous museum mile into one single image. Blechman pioneered romantic and often saccharine editorial imaginatively bankrupt and was Opposite. Op-Ed illustration ruled the roost, writes eclipsed in the postwar 1950s — first by illustration, Monday 9 March, 1998. a less-is-more Steven Heller. Before R. O. Blechman more baffling impressionistic, and later Art Director: Nicholas Blechman. produced his earliest work, the typical by expressionistic, approaches. With his distinctive squiggle, aesthetic. narrative style of rigorously painted Clever concepts were soon valued over Blechman makes an icon or cliché — tableaux dominated American photorealistic obsessiveness. A new, like the in this drawing — His scratchy shorthand appear fresh and engaging. magazines and advertising from modern illustration was influenced by expresses ideas with the late nineteenth century through to certain Europeans, such as George the 1960s. True, some of it was of high Grosz in the 1920s and Saul Steinberg a punchy surprise quality and many of its adherents’ in the 1940s, among many, whose work won the lion’s share of awards, approaches, as a rule, were drawn lined the walls of New York’s musty more sketchily and relied on ideas that and filled the were expressed through gesture, pages of its competition annuals, as well as allegory and metaphor. but it was doomed to extinction. This work proffered absurdity and Literal representation was de rigueur surreal juxtapositions; simple, and art directors were required to circle embolden lines added to the allure. the text passages they wanted to have Blechman was one of the pioneers of illustrated. Form dominated content, a less-is-more, comedic aesthetic that

50 Eye 95/18 Opposite. ‘Op-Ed’ illustration for The New York Times, Monday 11 February, 2013. Art director: Aviva Michaelov. Blechman was one of several illustrators used to offset the social critiques with subtle yet sharp graphic commentaries. Right. The New York Times Book Review, 4 December, 2011. Blechman’s work could be caustic or comforting or a little bit of both. This cover for the holiday issue of The New York Times Book Review reveals a worried man happily deluged with books of wonder. Art Director: Nicholas Blechman.

was an intentionally more scratchy Blechman’s method, especially illustrators and graphic commentators era include (who was graphic shorthand than laboured his minimalism, however, that emerged at the time were known a bit older), , Tomi Ungerer, representation that expressed an not only distinguished itself for idiosyncratic conceptual styles and Edward Sorel, , Lou Myers, idea with a punchy surprise. from the preceding generation. unorthodox content. At first they found Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, His work, along with others of his ilk, His approach was unique within his outlets in large and small magazines Randall Enos and , was also often untethered to text, own generation, which was awash that leaned politically left, or at least in who created stingingly satirical work more autonomous than the slavish with individualists that typified an the libertine ways they flaunted taboos. for magazines such as Second Coming, conventional illustration, and therefore exciting era of change in this artform. And Blechman was not alone. Monocle, Evergreen, Ramparts and more entertaining and memorable. The wave of , The other iconoclasts of Blechman’s The Realist. The men’s magazines , Esquire and Cavalier Right. Disappointed Abraham Lincoln, were fertile ground, as well. a drawing made for The New York Times, Although stylistically these artists October 21, 1985 to illustrate the article were all very different, what tied them ‘Should Colleges Divest?’ With just a few well placed and deliberately composed together was an interest in addressing lines, R. O. Blechman could make even intimately personal themes using Abraham Lincoln show disappointment expressively sophisticated techniques with US finance. that employed taboo-busting humour to attack a host of emerging social and political issues. To a large extent they reshaped the role of illustration that evolved into the illustrator-as-author ethos that is so vital today.

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