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Home , Coby Whitmore, Famous Artists School, Franklin McMahon, John Clymer, Jon Whitcomb, Mead Schaeffer

THE S/lTUI(pjlY lEVENJ^G POST AEE ILLUSTEATOKS OBSOLETE?

by STUART W. LITTLE grains of sand were little plastic cubes containing thumbnail-size pink baby n the last two decades the illustra­ dolls. The chilling point was this: The tor has watched a world of rapidly top half of the hour-glass, frozen in Ichanging perspective. The stock time, had fewer plastic babies than the images of the past—the white picket bottom half. fence, the trim, flower-bordered town To gauge what has happenend in square, the old swimming hole—have , all within a working gen­ long since vanished with the covers of eration of painters, one should lay this the Saturday Evening Post, giving way image alongside the scrapbook Stevan to the kind of apocalyptic symbolism Dohanos keeps on a table in his hillside that took over the June exhibition at studio in Westport, , con­ the in , taining the 125 covers he painted for The society's annual scholastic com­ the Saturday Evening Post in the cover, 1924. petition was loaded in favor of the gentler era of careful realism. Here, modern mood of environmental alarm. through the open doors of the white- family's ice cream cones on her way The contestants were asked to base painted Congregational church, is the back to the car. Here, in the very first their work on R. Buckminster Fuller's choir glimpsed at practice. Here, a Post cover Dohanos painted, in war­ statement, "We are all astronauts, for group of dejected neighborhood dogs time 1943, the park department carpen­ we live aboard a very little spaceship, watch the morning school bus depart. ter in overalls fixes a new name plaque illogically called 'earth'. . . ." Since Here, a Dalmatian with a litter of pups in place on the four-sided town honor illustration is no longer restricted to in the firehouse, in one of Dohanos's roll. Compare this treatment of death line drawings or paintings, one of the most famous covers, wistfully regards with the hourglass filled with plastic entries was a tall, three-dimensional the engine pulling out on a call. Here, babies. sculptured hourglass whose substitute a little girl warily clutches the whole Illustrators always have been con­ cerned with America's self-image— with the rough- and-ready adventurism of the frontier, -f) Cosmopolitan, 1936 with the suave social elegance of the town, Norman Rockwell with our homey simplicity. The quarter century Dohanos worked as a Post cover artist, along with Rock­ well, John Falter, , , and George Hughes, was one of the great periods of American illus­ tration. Within their working lifetime the big change has come. At no other period in the history of illustration have styles changed so convulsively, leaving the old guard emotionally back in the town square, professionally not yet out of their prime, still productive —as Dohanos and so many of his col­ leagues are—but with no more Post adventure serials to illustrate and most of the covers lost to photography. One can shed a painted tear for what is gone. Color photography was the first great agent of change, and then tele­ vision. The magazines have always determined the fate of the illustrators. When the art directors were faced with a choice of using photography or art, the illustrator began to lose out. Walt Reed, historian of the illustrator, points out that when television came ANTHONY ADVERSE magazines ceased to be the primary

aa h S. S. VAN DINE A Bradshaw Crandell pastel—"The cover was an editorial effort, standing by itself, making its point without benefit of text." 40 SR/JULY 10, 1971 PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ^,««,^„«,^.u.«,. POST

-© J942 by The Curtis Piihtishing Co. -© 1944 by The Curtis Piihlishiug Co. Covers by Mead Schaeffer (left) and —"One can shed a painted tear for what is gone." escapist vehicle. Money that went into time it would take a trained painter. Holiday, Alex Ross for Good House­ television was money withdrawn from Freeman says, the computer can ac­ keeping. Inevitably the Post was the magazines, and the market for illus­ curately trace the rotational somer­ No. 1 showcase. Readers used to wait tration shrank. Big buyers dropped by saults of a moving missile revolving expectantly each week to see what the the wayside—CoZ/fer's, Woman's Home on its horizontal axis and simultane­ Post cover would be. The Post rates Companion, and the Saturday Evening ously on its vertical axis, end over end. were not the highest, except for Rock­ Post, which in its final years already Stevan Dohanos remembers the dec­ well, who did his first Post cover in had abandoned its cover policy. Cos­ ade from 1940 to 1950 as being "the 1916. While Woman's Day was paying mopolitan, which almost went under boom, busy years" when all the "slicks" a flat fee of $1,500 per illustration, the until Helen Gurley Brown injected new were using illustration heavily, when Post was paying $1,000. For the sea­ (sex) life into the magazine, reduced the leading illustrators were known by soned professional, the Post cover its budget of fiction from ten pieces to all the magazine editors, and when would be worth from $2,000 to $3,000; one. Life has contracted considerably each magazine had almost a yearly for Rockwell, possibly $7,500. Today's from its former position as a major quota of work for its regulars, many rates in the big magazines are not real­ art consumer handing out assignments of whom were making probably $50,- ly improved much over the old. At Mc- such as its American Folklore series 000 a year or more. Call's and others, a single page will that could occupy an artist for as was specializing in smart women in bring about $800 and two pages up to much as one to four years, with fold- love and racing cars. Al Parker was the $2,500, depending on the amount of outs and covers and full-color pages. dean of the women's fiction school of work involved and the name of the New art directors have forsaken the illustration. was manu­ artist. naturalistic manner. Wade Nichols, facturing beautiful faces in closeup. Dohanos's first big break on the Post editor of , for some , one of the best drafts­ came when he was asked to illustrate years has observed the trend "toward men, was to do his famous campaign an eight-part serial by Nordhoff and less subjectivity in illustration, less of Madison Avenue types for TV Guide. Hall set in Tahiti. After 1943 he con­ realism, less dependence on the sit­ Joe DcMers was painting elegant com­ centrated on covers, submitting his uational treatment of a story." The positions highlighting the fashion-con­ ideas in the form of sketches and main­ younger art directors have brought on scious woman. Joseph Bowler was taining an acceptance ratio of one idea contemporaries schooled in new styles sketching young actresses making up in five. New England was the breeding and have ignored the older illustrators. in the bulb-lined dressing room mir­ ground for his covers, most of them The camera came into it more and ror. was painting action from in and around Westporl. They de­ more. A consummate illustrator such scenes across a broad canvas. picted family life and community life as Fred Freeman, a pictorial historian One cover, however, would bring an with an authenticity of detail that of the U.S. Navy, kept ahead of pho­ artist more recognition than any num­ reached into the furthest corners of tography by going underwater and into ber of inside . The cover the canvas. For the precise pictorial space. Even there the computer has was an editorial effort, standing by it­ feel of that time one can confidently pre-empted the trained and experi­ self, making its point without benefit refer to the Dohanos scrapbook—even enced artist by making better draw­ of caption or accompanying text. Brad- for such esoteric facts as the varieties ings of missiles in orbit than human shaw Crandell was doing the covers of sweets that appeared in a pre-World hand can render. In a fraction of the for Cosmopolitan, George Giusti for War II candy store counter, the pins

SR JULY 10. 1971 41 PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED and buttons a small boy would collect, blocks, acrylics. It has dipped deeply murder scenes with waxen store dum­ and the insignia that would appear on into the sinuousness of art nouveau to mies in derby hats looking on. the printed souvenir scarf around his produce as in the work of Peter The acknowledged master of modern neck. Dohanos was careful to put them Max and turned advertising images in­ illustration is , the most all in. His covers stand up, and a col­ side out to produce art as in the work versatile, the most innovative, and the lection of them, even at this short dis­ of Andy Warhol. most influential in the field. Glaser's tance of time, would have unique his­ Push Pin Studios, whose main show­ torical value. he new permissiveness has infil­ case is New York Magazine, has pro­ Like his paintings, his attractive T trated illustration. The restless­ duced some of the most original of the Westport studio, its huge north win­ ness and ingenuity found in the new modern illustrators, including his part­ dow looking out on delicate pines, is illustration derive from the fragmenta­ ner Seymour Chwast, with his papier- crammed with Americana, including a tion of modern art. The rapidity of im­ mache-like figures and game board mock-up of the fire plug that appeared ages moving across the screen has de­ pictures, and Isadore Seltzer. These in so many of his covers, stuffed owls, stroyed the placid landscape. The beat new illustrators are sensitive to the a lit barber's pole, a cast-iron potbel­ of rock music has disturbed the smooth modern discoveries in painting and lied stove with an elbow flu joined to perspective. Vietnam has shattered the quick to reflect them in their work. its chimney, and a built-in post office myth about the goodness of American Between the new and the old illus­ the size of a telephone booth through life depicted in the old cover art. We trators, Bernard Fuchs and Robert whose window grill one can see letters are living in a new graphics culture Peak are transitional figures, and Har­ propped in their pigeonholes. The min­ that exactly mirrors the unsettled time. vey Schmidt today would probably be iature station reminds Dohanos of his Illustrators and art directors are in this company also had he not gone responsibilities as a consultant to the turning to fine painting for inspiration over to composing after The Fantas- U.S. Post Office on the design of com­ and for the solution to their problems. ticks. Fuchs has broken new ground memorative stamps. Alvin Grossman, art director of Mc- with an impressionistic and economi­ Dohanos acts as his own agent, but Call's, might find in the primitiveness cal style showing Kennedy glimpsed most artists, being rather shy types of Rousseau, or Dutch genre painting, through a lit window of the White tied to their drawing boards, prefer or Utrillo the answers to problems of House and new perspectives on sports representation. In the Depression years illustration. "The fine artists were the contests. Peak has used illustrative 1938-1939 an artists' representative of­ illustrators of their day, and they had collage and painted huge impressionis­ ten commanded 60 per cent of the fee, more bite," he says. Grossman believes tic pro football lines in electric blue for but studio space and work materials that the single painter who has most Sports Illustrated. The venturesome were included. The more usual agent influenced modern illustration is the Franklin McMahon carves out his own percentage is 25 per cent. Since the So­ Belgian Rene Magritte (1898-1967), a assignments and sends himself around ciety of Illustrators was formed by surrealist, or magic realist, who in­ the world, always selling his specula­ Charles Dana Gibson and a group of jected surprise elements and dream tive projects in the top market. symbols into quite ordinary-looking artists in 1901, various attempts have Turning over illustration to a new settings, painting sectionalized wom­ been made to protect against various generation is the best thing that could en's torsos, disappearing men at cafe abuses such as art directors combining have happened to the older illustrator, tables in four panels, and macabre parts of drawings by different artists according to one of their number, be- or buying a picture at house organ rates and using it in an advertisement. Today, a joint ethics committee has the support and participation of the artists, the agents, and the art di­ rectors. To a serious professional noth­ ing is so pernicious as the art contest, and the in West- port has earned the opprobrium of some illustrators because of its dubi­ ous sponsorship of such contests, in effect turning work over to students in a declining market. Illustration has moved further in the last couple of decades than in all its earlier history when there were no ma­ jor innovators or movements, only in­ dividual variations in style and tech­ nique. The demythologizing of America has knocked the underpinning away from the old romantic realism of a gen­ eration of artists. The country store has lost its charm and the old swim­ ming hole is polluted. The graphics ex­ plosion set off in part by the startling visual imagery of television has pro­ duced radical change. The new illus­ tration stylistically is a mind-blowing mix of high colors and random ma­ terials. It makes use of collage, mon­ tage, technique, assemblage. Anything goes in the way of materials Mllton Glaser illustration for —spray cans, dayglo colors, wood "Sports Illustrated"—"leaving the old guard back in the town square." 42 SR/JULY 10, 1971 PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED cause it has forced him to turn to fine art. Some have gone into the textbook field, rich in illustrative possibilities, or opened galleries, but many, late in their careers, have embraced what they always wanted: free expression as art­ ists without layout restrictions or art directors looking over their shoulders. Alex Ross is a case in point. Ross came to New York in 1939 on the strength of a drawing of the first atom smasher, reproduced by Life, and got his first break when Good Housekeep­ ing, then edited by Herbert R. Mayes, picked him as its cover artist. He was to paint 120 covers of children, some­ times using his own daughters as mod­ els. The notoriety of being a top cover artist catapulted him into high-grade work for the other magazines. The Good Housekeeping cover, Ross's bread and butter, was worth |2,000 to $2,500. He set some of the highest prices in the field, one year, by his reckoning, turning down $100,000 worth of com­ mercial work he couldn't get to. Ross • : ^ A had the Good Housekeeping cover from 1942 to 1954. Then it stopped. Il­ lustration each year since has seemed a less attractive prospect. Finally, around 1963, he decided to turn full- time to serious painting. Five years ago Ross moved from a large place in .«! Wilton, Connecticut, to a modern split- level of his own design in Ridgefield on the steep edge of an 850-foot hill at the extreme western edge of the state look­ I W ing across a valley into New York, with .'t/i a few farms and white houses lying on the far hillside, as in a John Clymer landscape. Working in the large studio at the north end of his house, Ross today paints large, very light canvases that (Above) Isadore Seltzer drawing attempt to marry the realistic with the for an advertisement—"sensitive abstract, and works toward another to tlie modem discoveries in paint­ possible breakthrough in his career. ing and qulclc to reflect them." The output bears little resemblance to the embracing high-fashion couples that decorate the wall of a small study at the front of the house that he lightly calls "the clutch room." Two of the most promising new mar­ kets for the illustrator might appear to be record covers and paperback cov­ ers, but even here the older illustrator is apt to be closed out. The paperback art market is a crowded field and the best price for the work is around $500. Record covers require an inventive­ ness and venturesomeness the older il­ lustrators are not likely to supply, and much of this sophisticated art is being found by inventive art directors quite literally "in the street." The base price for a record cover is around $300, but they can go considerably higher, into the thousands. President Kennedy by Bernard Those who expressed the strongest Fuchs—"brealcing new ground witli an Impressionistic style." point of view in illustration may have the hardest time changing. Dohanos, for one, is reconciled to being a pic-

SR/JULY 10, 1971 43 PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED »^K

Robert Peak drawing for "McCall's"—"The country store has lost its charm and the old swimming hole is polluted." ture-maker, not a figure-maker. He is Wade Nichols feels that the new illus­ erbound edition of 1,000, carrying a busier than ever on commemorative tration has hurt readership because price tag of $600, is soon coming out. stamps, calendars, and such projects the artist has interposed his interpre­ Framed Rockwell reproductions in lim­ as his handsome series on American tation between the writer and the ited editions are on sale for $29.95 hand-crafted objects. Jon Whitcomb is reader, and for some time now Good apiece in the window at Brentano's on doing glamorous portraiture in Darien. Housekeeping has been steering illus­ Fifth Avenue, and his originals at auc­ Al Parker now lives in Carmel, Cali­ tration into old lines, depicting more tion command prices in five figures. fornia, and comes to New York per­ literally what the writer is trying to Rockwell already is the Old Master of haps twice a year for his work for cor­ say. Alvin Grossman at McCall's feels illustration. He told Abrams his book porations and airlines. Austin Briggs the pendulum could swing back, es­ had given him a second fame. The old is living in Paris all but retired from pecially in photography, and he has Liberty magazine has been reprinted, commercial art. Coby Whitmore and already ordered photographs of what and a new Saturday Evening Post— Joe DeMers have moved to Sea Island, he calls Rockwell situations—simple, reverting firmly to the old format, with Georgia, one to paint, the other to open recognizable, believable, human. Rockwell on the cover entertaining a an art gallery. Joe Bowler is concen­ It may be significant that illustra­ visiting newsboy and again in an inside trating on portraits. Tom Lovell is tion, especially Norman Rockwell's, piece at his easel in his Stockbridge, working mostly for the National Geo­ has been riding the wave of nostalgia Massachusetts, studio—is back on the graphic, and John Falter primarily for that is sweeping through our secon­ newsstands. Rockwell still is painting the Reader's Digest. dary culture, bringing the reissue of every day, as are Dohanos and Falter The sort of illustration these artists old Broadway musicals, 1930s records, and many famous names. Today the excel at survives mainly in the recon­ vintage comic strips, and once-dis­ illustrator meets himself coming and struction of events such as trials and carded fashions. The coin of the older going. in fashion. As for the rest, a top artists' illustrator is no longer currency, but No, illustration is not dying out. representative such as Tom Holloway, some of the pieces have already be­ Dohanos is happily at work in his who handles Fuchs and Mark English, come numismatic items. James Mont­ pleasant Westport studio in a setting concedes that today's market is hard gomery Flagg's famous "I Want You!" he or Falter might have painted. to nail down. More artists may be poster of Uncle Sam has come back Dohanos says, "I foresee the day when engaged than ever before and in a with a change of emphasis. The col­ they will send a scientist, a poet, and greater variety of ways, but since the lected Rockwell works contained in an artist on a space shot. There are cover disappeared it is harder for them Norman Rockwell, Artist and Illustra­ various ways to interpret an event, and to establish an identity with the pub­ tor, issued last September by Harry N. the artist has his way. Before long lic. Dohanos believes art nouveau may Abrams, was a sellout in its first two there'll be an artist setting up his eventually stifle itself from overuse. months, grossing $2.5-miIlion at the tripod and easel on the moon." Milton Glaser has been imitated so initial offering price of $45. At $60 a Without a moment's hesitation, Do­ widely he would probably appreciate copy, total sales in 1971 are expected hanos added, "I predict the artist they a respite from that form of flattery. to reach $8-million, and a signed leath- choose will be Norman Rockwell." 44 ER JULY 10, 1971 PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED enables them to see through the par­ tisanship and shouting." In Jersey City, the Jersey Journal maintains police and court beats but has wiped out its city district beats as EVERYTHING CHANGES- "wasteful." "We're relying on report­ ing teams working out of the office," said Editor August Lockwood. "We EYEN THE NEWSROOM found that beat men were ignoring news they didn't like and were usually hard to reach when we needed them." by M. L. STEIN lems, such as anti-poverty and Model On the Newark Star-Ledger, a special Cities agencies." projects unit of five reporters, all ex­ A s American institutions go, the The Bulletin and its afternoon sister, perts on various subjects, work be­ l\ daily newspaper has never been the Providence Journal, have devel­ yond the clutches of the city editor. XjLin the forefront of change, espe­ oped an urban affairs team of four They report to the managing editor or cially on the editorial side. The old reporters to cover various aspects of to the editor, Morton Pye, who credits adage that "news is what the editor city life. Ungaro explained that spe­ them with turning out a number of says it is" is as much fact as legend cialists enable the papers to relate solidly researched, in-depth pieces on on many papers. The young reporter national and state problems to local such topics as state pension plans, who rebels against the system is quick­ issues. "It isn't enough anymore," he auto insurance, and medical care. ly brought to his senses when he is continued, "to run stories about a na­ "Quite often," Pye said, "one story told by a desk man to cover the story tional welfare proposal or law. The will lead to another of equal impor­ his way. After all, what was good reader wants to know what it is going tance or more so." A recent long arti­ enough for the editor and his editor to mean in his community. The re­ cle on auto insurance, for example, led before him is certainly good enough porter not only must be a specialist the writer to explore other kinds of for some smart punk just out of jour­ in his field and be able to cover local insurance policies and what was wrong nalism school. aspects but must understand national with them. But the young journalism graduate developments." The Star-Ledger has eliminated the need not despair entirely. The news­ The Milwaukee Journal also has police beat, according to Pye. Police paper business is changing in a quiet, swung toward urban affairs special­ news is handled by telephone out of evolutionary way that is profoundly ization in covering neighborhood or­ the city room, with reporters being affecting editors, reporters, and read­ ganizations. Model Cities, civil rights, sent out only on major stories. ers. Old-time habits are by no means environment, and education. Managing "We found the police beat in Newark being swept away completely, but it's Editor Joseph W. Shoquist said the and in the suburbs to be a wasteful clear from a survey of twenty-eight reporter specialists are still respon­ process," Pye declared. "To justify large and medium-sized dailies around sible to the city editor, but added: "I their existence, the police reporters the country that Front Page attitudes believe we are coming to recognize were coming up with an enormous toward news coverage are giving way that a city or metropolitan editor is amount of trivia that was driving the to new and exciting concepts in met­ not really capable of directing the desk crazy. By having these reporters ropolitan areas. The changes are tak­ work of many specialists in many dif­ work out of the office, we are getting ing the form of team or task-force ferent areas as well as the specialists stronger police and municipal cover­ reporting, the elimination or restruc­ themselves are. . . . The trend is to­ age." turing of traditional beats, the playing ward separate desk organizations un­ Less emphasis on crime news was down of crime news, more news em­ der the overall direction of the city or similarly reported by the Trib­ phasis on social change, a concern metropolitan editor." une. "Many routine police stories are with the environment, the creation of now ignored," said City Editor David new specialists, and a re-evaluation of he New York Daily News, the na­ E. Halvorsen. He added that the Trib­ the kind of information readers are tion's leader in circulation, re­ une is preparing to make a "thorough willing to absorb. T ported a "drastic" cut in police cover­ re-examination of our beat system, be­ The shifts appear to be part of a age and a sharper focus on urban cause some of the techniques used in process that began in the second half affairs stories. Metropolitan Editor beat reporting are clearly outmoded. of the 1960s in the wake of racial and John Smee said that only the Manhat­ There is a certain amount of ineffi­ campus revolution, dramatic shifts in tan and Brooklyn police beats are ciency that must be eliminated." American life-styles, the awareness of manned anymore as part of a policy to Halvorsen pointed out, however, that pollution, the Vietnam War, urban de­ send highly qualified reporters "where in such a highly competitive city as cay, and other issues. Unquestionably, the news is being generated. Chicago, particular beats—notably City too, the nation's fascination with tele­ "We're putting a lot of stress on Hall, central police, and the State vision news has influenced the news­ housing, hospitals, welfare, and other Building—will continue to be staffed papers' new direction. city problems," he related. "In the in the foreseeable future. Whatever the reasons, a number of past, we took these matters too much Editors of other newspapers, includ­ newspapers are undergoing editorial for granted by making them general ing the Boston Globe, the restyling, and it's beginning to show. assignments. But we're living in an City Journal, the Denver Post, and the Joseph M. Ungaro, managing editor of adversary age. People are polarized Seattle Post-Intelligencer, likewise said the Providence Evening Bulletin, re­ and angry. They cannot be depended they had no present plans to abandon cently said, "Our City Hall reporter upon to give reporters unbiased ac­ such old-line beats as police and City today is an urban affairs specialist, counts. Therefore, we no longer feel Hall. They cited the need for protecting essentially because his area of news is that the general assignment reporter the paper against competition and the no longer just City Hall. There are is equipped to handle certain situa­ advantage of the best reporter's close many agencies dealing with the same tions. We depend instead on urban association with his sources. "If an problems or aspects of the same prob­ experts armed with information that official is dealing with a reporter he

SR/JULY 10, 1971 45 PRODUCED 2005 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED