The Devil His Due: The Art of Pancho Domínguez
Today we spotlight the work of Pancho Domínguez, a visual artist from Monterrey, Mexico…
Bob Peak Promotional Art for ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’, 1983
Although the extraordinary theatrical poster for Disney’s Something Wicked This Way Comes was illustrated by David Grove, Bob Peak painted these equally impressive pieces that, as far as I know, were never used. Peak, of course, was one of the finest commercial illustrators of the 20th century, and he virtually defined the visual concept of the modern film poster, starting with his colorful montage for 1961’s West Side Story…
There’s a Ghost in My House: Ionicus Book Covers, 1973 – 1988
Ionicus—the pen name of prolific British illustrator Joshua Charles Armitage—is probably best known for his cover illustrations for Penguin Books’ P. G. Wodehouse reissues and magazine The Dalesman, as well as the many cartoons he contributed to Punch magazine. But it is his work for London publishing house William Kimber & Co that may best represent his legacy…
“Join the Mutants”: Berkeley Bonaparte Poster Catalog, 1967
Berkeley Bonaparte was a Bay Area poster art company founded in 1967 by illustrators Rick Griffin, Alton Kelley, Victor Moscoso, Stanley Mouse, and Wes Wilson. The “Big Five,” as they came to be known, had developed a following designing posters to advertise local rock concerts, promoted by Bill Graham, at the Fillmore Auditorium and Avalon Ballroom…
Zapped with Energy: Keith Haring’s Flying Saucers, 1980 – 1985
Artist, activist, and philanthropist Keith Haring produced most of his “flying saucer” drawings well before his work became an international pop culture touchstone. In the summer of 1980, Haring was at a crossroads, and his life and art, he said, “went totally berserk”…
No Powerful Idea Lasts Long: The Memphis Group and the Look of the ’80s
Of the many cultural tributaries that flowed together into what we now think of as the visual aesthetic of the 1980s, one of the most prominent must be the Memphis Group. Convened in 1981 by Austrian-born architect and designer Ettore Sottsass, Memphis was a collective that—incongruously, for something that seems so violently of its times—took its name from the lyric of a Bob Dylan song…
“A Happy Metaphor”: Julio Le Parc’s ‘La Longue Marche’, 1974
La Longue Marche (The Long March) was completed in 1974, two years after Le Parc refused a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris (according to legend, the decision was based on a coin toss). The work consists of 10 separate but integrated panels featuring interweaving braids of vibrant prismatic color, and stretches to more than 65 feet in length…
The Meaning and the Drama: ‘U&lc’ Magazine, 1973 – 1999
The International Typeface Corporation was a private company founded in 1970 to take typesetting out of the physical, metal-setting world and into more “virtual” spheres like filmsetting and the nascent world of computer typesetting. For a quarter-century starting in 1973, ITC released its own print journal, called Upper & Lower Case, or U&lc…
“Darndest Thing You Ever Saw!”: BEST Products and Houston’s Indeterminate Facade Showroom
Drive down a fairly benign, suburban road in southeast Houston, Texas, and you’ll pass the parking lot that once housed the BEST Products showroom known as Indeterminate Facade. Located at 10765 Kingspoint Road, the still-hanging-in-there Almeda Mall is nearby, along with a shuttered public library building…
One Sheet Terrors: Enzo Sciotti Film Posters, 1980 – 1990
The promotional artwork used on genre film posters, and later on VHS packaging, was often more important for establishing a foothold in the popular imagination than the films themselves. This was especially true in the Italy of the 1980s, where a thriving and competitive cinema industry was increasingly looking to the opportunities offered by foreign markets and the burgeoning home video trade…
