The Monday Tilley Watch takes a glancing look at the art and artists of the latest issue of The New Yorker
With this new double issue we ring out the old (so long 2024!) and ring in the new — the year The New Yorker celebrates its 100th birthday. I’m looking forward to whatever New Yorker goodies The New York Public Library chooses to lay on us in its A Century Of The New Yorker exhibit. And then there’s the big exhibit focused on the magazine’s art, curated by Liza Donnelly, opening January 16th at The Society of Illustrators: Drawn From The New Yorker: A Centennial Celebration. And from the Department of Shameless Self-Promotion (but you know I’d be talking about it even if I had nothing to do with it), don’t forget At Wit’s End: Cartoonists Of The New Yorker, a brand new book of photographs and essays honoring the magazine’s artists.
The Spill will keep you posted as centennial events develop and transpire; centennial features appearing in the magazine will, of course, be dutifully be noted as well.
The Cartoonists and Cartoons:
Fifteen cartoons, fifteen cartoonists. No newbies, and no duos, that we know of. The longest active contributing cartoonist in the issue is Mort Gerberg, whose first drawing appeared in the issue of April 10, 1965. Mr. Gerberg is also the current longest active contributing cartoonist in the magazine. Edward Frascino, whose first New Yorker cartoon appeared in the September 4, 1965 is the second longest active cartoonist contributor.
The Cartoon Caption Contest cartoonist: Kaamran Hafeez
The Rea Irvin Talk Watch:
The above perfect design by Rea Irvin ran in The New Yorker, uninterrupted, for 92 years. In May of 2017 it was replaced by — if you can believe it! — a redrawn version by a contemporary illustrator. The Spill, still shaking its head in disbelief, hopes that Mr. Irvin’s work one day returns. Read more here.
Rea Irvin’s entry on the A-Z:
Rea Irvin (pictured above. Self portrait above from Meet the Artist) Born, San Francisco, 1881; died in the Virgin Islands,1972. Irvin was the cover artist for the New Yorker’s first issue, February 21, 1925. He was the magazine’s first art and only art supervisor (some refer to him as its first art editor) holding the position from 1925 until 1939 when James Geraghty assumed the title of art editor. Irvin then became art director and remained in that position until William Shawn officially succeeded Harold Ross in early 1952. Irvin’s last original work for the magazine was the magazine’s cover of July 12, 1958. The February 21, 1925 Eustace Tilley cover had been reproduced every year on the magazine’s anniversary until 1994, when R. Crumb’s Tilley-inspired cover appeared. Tilley has since reappeared, with other artists substituting from time-to-time. Number of New Yorker covers (not including the repeat appearances of the first cover every anniversary up to 1991): 163. Number of cartoons contributed: 261.