Remember those old copies of Time from the 50s and 60s that were the only thing to read at your Grandma’s apartment? You know the ones with the awesome covers that looked like Tex Avery doing official state portraiture (back when folks actually spent time illustrating stories instead of just slapping text over a digital photo)? Most of those were done by one guy, Russian emigre Boris Artzybasheff, who also did a ton of equally cool and trippy stuff for books and science magazines and advertisements (back when folks actually spent time illustrating products and ideas instead of just slapping a shades on a skateboarding zebra). Like a lot of the amazing illustrators from the time, Boris was largely written off by the serious art world as “just a cartoonist” but has finally been getting his due in recent years. Ken Steacy just put out a reprinting of his 1954 collection As I See.
Check out this gallery for a smattering of his works–it’s like what Dali might have done if he kept up with technology and world affairs instead of just jerking off all the time.
Reader Comments
April 26th, 2006
12:11 pm
dali, famously, sent his father a plastic bag full of cum. what a fab wanker.
April 26th, 2006
7:36 pm
this is the most amazing art i’ve seen in forevers
April 27th, 2006
4:01 pm
i still find some surprisingly half decent illustrations in Time now and den. WHy am i saying ’still’, i only started reading time like 9 years ago and never saw an ish earlier than that, cept when they do a retrospect or summink
April 27th, 2006
5:17 pm
Genuine wow.