Seymour chwast facts of life

As Chwast explained to Steven Heller in Innovators of American Illustrationhe is a "nonconformist" who recognizes that "art has to establish its own order and authority while attacking the existing one. He is the author or illustrator of many books for children, some of which feature his unmistakable cartoon style. Chwast lived part of his childhood on Coney Islandwhere he spent a great deal of time drawing.

When he entered high school in New York, NY, his talent for art was apparent, and he was encouraged by his art teacher. Chwast later attended Cooper Union Art School, where he studied printmaking, woodcut techniques, and typography. The Push Pin group, in some organizational form or another, challenged traditional, sentimental illustration and graphic design for decades, earning its members admiration and respect.

They also renewed styles popular in years past. Chwast explained to Heller, "I found that arounddesigners had come to the end of a period of evolving style. We came to that point because extensive publishing allowed us to observe and digest everything that had been done before. We started borrowing from the past, and that seemed to progress chronologically.

In addition to his work with the group, Chwast has taken on a number of other projects over the years. He told Heller, "I'm always working on half a dozen things simultaneously. While I'm working on drawings, I might be conceptualizing and designing with other members of my studio. Their first collaboration, the work Still Another Alphabet Bookwas praised by critics for its originality, colorful pictures with hidden words, and gaiety.

The illustrations in the volume, according to Zena Sutherland of the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Booksare "a graphic triumph over tedium. Sutherland called it an "imaginative introduction to numbers. This book has what Ann A. Flowers of Horn Book described as an "ingenious format. The Alphabet Paradepublished inshowcases marchers and floats representing every letter of the alphabet in sequence.

The people watching the parade also contribute to the fun. The book was lauded as "cheerfully inventive" by a Kirkus Reviews critic. On the other hand, generally in editorial work, I am asked to expose the truer and less pretty side of ourselves. Does advertising lie? I dont know, but in a way it shows our weaknesses as well. In any event, while I consider myself a capitalist tool, along with a well-known business magazine, I share the hope of my colleagues that somehow humanity will be served.

However, on a more mundane level, he goes on to say: What I like to do is amuse myself with visual tricks, conundrums, parodies and the unpredictable. We often dont realize that being able to reproduce our work in newspapers and magazines millions of timesis magic!

Seymour chwast facts of life

I think the stuff we put on these pages should be magic too. Despite his many and varied accomplishments in so many fields, there remains one mountain yet unclimbed, one goal unattained. Some day Seymour Chwast would like to do a full-length animated film. Despite the unhappy fact that no financier has come forth, the Art Directors Club is obviously willing to overlook this unfulfilled ambition.

But of the many goals attained, there is no question. As Alan Fern, Director of that National Portrait Gallery once put it, One has only to look at Chwasts work to see that he is a person of exceptional accomplishment and range. An artist with a sense of wit, sympathetic to children, successful as an advertising designer, possessed of a social conscience, he is flexible without being eclectic, sentimental without being maudlin, an artist for commerce whose individuality is never for sale.

And it was Alexander Pope who said it best. Virtuosic drawing underpins almost everything he touches, but the results are never slick. His finishes are often unfinished looking and not tethered to one particular method; instead his illustration ranges from gnarly to precise, from naive to sophisticated. He is versatile with media, including monoprint, woodcut, collage, and montage; paint, ink, and charcoal; pencil, burin, and graver.

Few are as flexible yet so consistent. Decades ago he may have ended the revolutionary phase of his career even Mao knew one cannot be a revolutionary foreverbut judging from his output, we see that Seymour is resilient, and endures as restlessly motivated as ever. Seymour collected styles, drawing nourishment and then discarding them as necessary.

Push Pin was on the cutting edge of popular art. This was manifest in highly visible, mass-media jobs, including book jackets, record covers, posters, advertisements, and magazine covers. Seymour was a willing collaborator with others, yet it is fairly easy, even for the untrained eye, to pick out his contributions. His talent has always been demonstrated in his ability to wed sophistication to pop and pop to old and new vernaculars.

But Seymour felt no need to abandon the studio. More than a decade after the Graphic folded, Seymour started the Nosea twice-yearly festschrift devoted to ideas on politics, society, and culture. Retrieved January 30, External links [ edit ]. Inkpot Award s. Stine Ron Wilson. Complete list s s s s s. Authority control databases. Deutsche Biographie DDB.

Hidden categories: Webarchive template wayback links Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Wikipedia articles in need of updating from May All Wikipedia articles in need of updating Use mdy dates from November Articles with hCards. Toggle the table of contents. Seymour Chwast. IllustrationGraphic designType design.