It’s tempting to believe that the structure of The New Yorker’s Art Department arrived fully formed in 1924 when Harold Ross, with his wife Jane Grant began pulling together his dream magazine. But of course, such was not the case. What we know for certain is that once the first issue was out, Ross and several of
Read moreTag: Rea Irvin
Wolcott Gibbs and New Yorker Cartoons
Of all the duties Wolcott Gibbs attended to during his thirty-one years at The New Yorker (and his duties were many: editor, writer, theater critic), his relationship to the magazine’s cartoonists (or “artists” as the magazine calls them) is probably the least examined. When Gibbs began at The New Yorker, working under Katharine Angell (later, after marrying E.B. White,
Read moreA blast from the past: Meet the Artist
In 1943, San Francisco’s M.H. De Young Memorial Museum held an exhibit of artist’s self portraits called “Meet the Artist.” The catalog, 8 1/2″ x 7 3/4″ is a gem. Of the 188 artists represented, a number are New Yorker contributors: James Thurber, Saul Steinberg, Otto Soglow, Mischa Richter, Richard Taylor, Alajalov, Whitney Darrow, Jr., Richard Decker, Roberta MacDonald,
Read more“What’s So Funny About Red?” Color Cartoons in The New Yorker
I’m betting that a good number of The New Yorker’s readers (you know, those folks who go to the cartoons before looking at anything else in the magazine) have noticed something colorful going on with the cartoons. Four out of the first five issues of the new year have a color cartoon (the cartoons in the issue of January 24th
Read more