GUEST BLOG
How Illustration Became Art
Posted
by John Stocks
on Antiques.co.uk
The 1950’s and 1960’s were the hay day for magazine
illustration. The War Years were a thing of the past, paper came off
ration and "lifestyle" illustration flooded the pages in glorious color.
Commercial artists, many of whom had started their careers in art
school, were in now in high demand.
In 1950 a new kind of arts agency,
Artist Partners
was born. Working in collaboration with the biggest names in commercial
illustration and the top magazines it was soon the inundated with
requests for representation. By the late 1960’s AP was representing over
50 of the top commercial artists and designers in the world including
Felix Topolski,
Alistair Michie and Saul Bass who were in constant demand due to
their artistic capabilities. Illustration was the only way to create the
imagery required for the latest underwear or holiday advert, aside from
photography which was on the rise and would begin to take over with the
birth of the Celebrity magazine in the 70’s. Today, of course, it would
all be done digitally.
Back in the 50’s there was a very clear and wide divide between Art and
Illustration with the later considered vastly inferior. This is still
true today to some extent with a continual debate raging as to the
definition of "Fine Art." From the 1980’s there began to be interest in
the commercial art form of the 50’s and 60’s, but it wasn't really until
the rise of Retro in the 2000's that people started to look at the
illustrations of these decades properly and say 'Wow! this is iconic'.
The most fabulous drawn images perfectly depicting the spirit of the
1950's and 60's people, buildings and transportation. Illustrations
forgotten about in drawers went from being worth a few pounds to be
worth several thousand pounds and continue to prove popular with buyers
and collectors today.
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