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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

What Book?

... ARE YOU READING NOW?

Cartoonist Ronald Searle
I am reading What Am I Still Doing Here? by Roger Lewis.
This is not because I designed the jacket (without seeing any text), but because it is a wild saga of witty, thought-provoking, intelligent ramblings - and it's frequently spendidly vulgar to boot.

... WOULD YOU TAKE TO A DESERT ISLAND?

I would take Jenny Uglow's extraordinarily fascinating biography William Hogarth: A Life And A World. It took me over a year to read it the first time. I'd happily enjoy repeating that, and then get off the island, thanks very much.

... GAVE YOU THE READING BUG?

In the English classes of our small elementatary school, we were read Dickens. I was about 12 and totally bowled over by his visions and imagination.
So I would cycle off to the local town lending library, stuff my bicyle basket with the rest of Dickens and wallow.
And I've never regretted it.

... LEFT YOU COLD?

I can't say that I have read - knowingly - a book that left me cold. But, if I may twist the question, I recently bought a book that freezes to the bone. The Eichmann Trial by Deborah Lipstadt.
I attended that trial and spent a month in the courtroom regarding the man to whom a few millions of killings during World War II were but figures in his notebook.

Sunday, November 06, 2011

Graphis

International design journal Graphis magazine featured Searle's work on several occasions over the years.

Its first feature on Searle profiled the artist in 1948 with this lavish 6 page spread.  Exposure such as this must have helped Searle establish his reputation in the years after WWII.

 Wonderfully loose St. Trinians sketch on the right.

(Courtesy of Full Table.com)

In 1958 issue 80 printed an 11 page spread on Searle and his work











In 1980 issue 212 profiled Searle again with text by Dr. Alexander Duckers





In 1969 the magazine invited prominent graphic artists and illustrators to celebrate its 25th anniversary.  Gene Gable looks back at that issue at Creative Pro.com









Searle contributed several spectacular covers:


Issue 80 A frightening Picassoesque female artist


Issue 129 (1967) Stuck for an idea Searle creates a cover from the very problem of 'artists' block'!

Issue 169
Searle managed to use this rejected cover from the New Yorker for a 1973 Graphis cover