isabelle 17
1959/10/24 • Abe BIRNBAUM
Abe BIRNBAUM •
* 18 November 1898 in New York City, NY.
✝︎ 19 June 1966 in Lenox Hospital, New York.
“Metropolitan Opera Audience”
Gouache and ink on paper.
349x279 mm; 13 3/4x11 inches,
Signed "A. Birnbaum" in lower right image.
📍Private collection - Dec. 14, 2017 auction.
Photo credit: Swann Auction Galleries ⓒ
The New Yorker cover design.
October 24, 1959
Issue 1810 — Volume 35 — Number 36.
About BIRNBAUM ↓
Abe Birnbaum painted nearly 200 covers for The New Yorker magazine.
Mr. Birnbaum's last New Yorker cover appeared on the issue of May 28. In the bold and simple lines that were the stamp of his style, he drew two white sails on blue-green water under a broad blue sky.
Mr. Birnbaum represented people and objects in their most uncomplicated terms. A Lincoln Day cover several years ago showed only the hint of a stovepipe hat and some red, white, and blue bunting.
He contributed more portraits and drawings to the magazine's Profile and Reporter at Large sections than any other artist. His portraits, done in pen and ink and brush, reduced the face in one or two lines to what it was supposed to be a profile.
▪️Versatile Illustrator
Mr. Birnbaum did portraits of Henry Moore, the sculptor, and Abe H. Feder, a theatrical lighting man. In addition, he drew hockey players, hurricanes and illustrations for articles on television, smoking and cricket.
The magazine also used thousands of Mr. Birnbaum's spot drawings on inside pages that punctuated and indented columns of type. For one long story on burglary, he drew a keyhole that was described as "the most intensely keyhole keyhole there has ever been."
Mr. Birnbaum was an exacting craftsman. In the studio of his home in Croton, N.Y. surrounded by most of his 15 cats, he would draw an object such as a chair 200 times or more to get it right.
"Nothing is ugly," he said often. "Everything is what it is."
Mr. Birnbaum also drew illustrations for Harper's Bazaar, Vogue and The New York Times Sunday drama section. He had illustrated several books, including "Green Eyes,” which a jury picked as the best-illustrated children's book of 1953. The most recent book he illustrated is another juvenile title, “Did a Bear Just Walk There,” by Ann Rand.
▪️ At Art Students League
Born in Manhattan, Mr. Birnbaum studied at the Art Students League under Boardman Robinson and Kenneth Hayes Miller.
Mr. Birnbaum had held exhibitions at the Carnegie Institute and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
#Source: The New York Times obituary.
1959/10/24 • Abe BIRNBAUM
Abe BIRNBAUM •
* 18 November 1898 in New York City, NY.
✝︎ 19 June 1966 in Lenox Hospital, New York.
“Metropolitan Opera Audience”
Gouache and ink on paper.
349x279 mm; 13 3/4x11 inches,
Signed "A. Birnbaum" in lower right image.
📍Private collection - Dec. 14, 2017 auction.
Photo credit: Swann Auction Galleries ⓒ
The New Yorker cover design.
October 24, 1959
Issue 1810 — Volume 35 — Number 36.
About BIRNBAUM ↓
Abe Birnbaum painted nearly 200 covers for The New Yorker magazine.
Mr. Birnbaum's last New Yorker cover appeared on the issue of May 28. In the bold and simple lines that were the stamp of his style, he drew two white sails on blue-green water under a broad blue sky.
Mr. Birnbaum represented people and objects in their most uncomplicated terms. A Lincoln Day cover several years ago showed only the hint of a stovepipe hat and some red, white, and blue bunting.
He contributed more portraits and drawings to the magazine's Profile and Reporter at Large sections than any other artist. His portraits, done in pen and ink and brush, reduced the face in one or two lines to what it was supposed to be a profile.
▪️Versatile Illustrator
Mr. Birnbaum did portraits of Henry Moore, the sculptor, and Abe H. Feder, a theatrical lighting man. In addition, he drew hockey players, hurricanes and illustrations for articles on television, smoking and cricket.
The magazine also used thousands of Mr. Birnbaum's spot drawings on inside pages that punctuated and indented columns of type. For one long story on burglary, he drew a keyhole that was described as "the most intensely keyhole keyhole there has ever been."
Mr. Birnbaum was an exacting craftsman. In the studio of his home in Croton, N.Y. surrounded by most of his 15 cats, he would draw an object such as a chair 200 times or more to get it right.
"Nothing is ugly," he said often. "Everything is what it is."
Mr. Birnbaum also drew illustrations for Harper's Bazaar, Vogue and The New York Times Sunday drama section. He had illustrated several books, including "Green Eyes,” which a jury picked as the best-illustrated children's book of 1953. The most recent book he illustrated is another juvenile title, “Did a Bear Just Walk There,” by Ann Rand.
▪️ At Art Students League
Born in Manhattan, Mr. Birnbaum studied at the Art Students League under Boardman Robinson and Kenneth Hayes Miller.
Mr. Birnbaum had held exhibitions at the Carnegie Institute and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
#Source: The New York Times obituary.