.com...the link between you, the visual artist, and the manufacturer of art materials.
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Man Ray, the American Dadaist, described the effect of the airbrush on him in his autobiography Self Portrait (1963): "I worked in gouache on tinted and white cardboards--the results were astonishing--they had a photographic quality, although the subjects were anything but figurative. Or rather, I'd start with a definite subject, something I had seen--nudes, an interior, a ballet with Spanish dancers, or even some odd miscellaneous object lying about which I used as a stencil, but the result was always a more abstract pattern. It was thrilling to paint a picture, hardly touching the surface--a purely cerebral act, as it were." That same magical effect captured the interest of many artists throughout the world, including Joseph Binder.
Posters were used to communicate with the general public at that time, and Joseph Binder became one of the most famous poster painters in the world. His work had a uniquely cubist style, and rather than being second to Picasso, he decided to become number one in poster art. And that he did with his travel posters, among others. Binder believed that for a quick and lasting impression in advertising art, the sales story had to be told pictorially. Artists from around the world visited him in Vienna, where he taught. One such artist was the American illustrator Otis Shepard, who visited in the late '20s and was immediately and deeply impacted by the artwork in Binder's studio. Shepard, who worked exclusively in airbrush technique, is known mostly for his Wrigley-Spearmint Gum illustrations, which reflect a direct influence of Binder.
After World War I, the advertising industry matured in the United States. The development of photo magazines provided an expanded venue for the pictorial advertisement of products and goods. The need for advertising art far outstripped the in-house capabilities and imagination of industries, and thus the development of the ad agency (Madison Avenue).
Because of this great need for illustrators, in 1933 Binder moved to New York City to work. It was here that his admirer and visitor, Otis Shepard, was established as one of the predominant illustrators in the U.S. Shepard, like Binder, approached his art based on the following theory: You had to eat, sleep, and drink the product to be able to represent it to the public. He believed that an illustration should have a simple language that could be understood by individuals at all levels of society. As the art director of Wrigley-Spearmint Gum, Shepard produced many years of work based on this philosophy.
This hard edge Art Deco image became predominant in 1930's illustration. Vogue magazine's art director, Mehemed Fehmy Agha, pioneered this new look along with other magazines such as Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, and Fortune. The buying public was exposed to this simple, graceful style to which they quickly became enamored.
At the same time, some illustrators were taking the airbrush in a totally opposite direction--slick, sensual, soft-edge figurative painting that promoted and sold everything from swimsuits to wrenches. And, like the poster art, these too, stood on their own as paintings. The artists, e.g., George Petty and Alberto Vargas, will be addressed in the next installment of the history of airbrush.
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Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 12 No. 2 -- December 2001