Abe Gurvin
Abe Gurvin (Attleboro, Massachusetts, December 31, 1937 - Santa Maria, [Santa Barbara County], California, July 9, 2012) was one of the most prolific and interesting American artists, among the greatest representatives of 'psychedelic art' (which, in San Francisco, it was an evolution of 'groovy' art, and which drew inspiration from the systematic use of LSD). The news about his educational and professional training are totally absent from the websites, while his works are very well known, loved and awarded: he has designed album covers for artists such as Janis Joplin, The Zodiac, Federal Duck and Bread, but the historic series of Nuggets album covers for Elektra, represents an authentic masterpiece that sanctioned, and somehow closed, an extraordinary artistic era
Abe Gurvin's portfolio included advertising work for companies such as Toyota, Coca-Cola, Disney, Suzuki, IBM, Marantz, Scholastic, Kenwood, Time-Life Books, Sony Music, and many more. He has received awards from One Show, Communication Arts, New York Art Directors, Best of Show, LA Society of Illustrators, New York Society of Illustrators, Los Angeles Art Directors Club, Society of Publication Designers and The Belding Award.
We remember some graphic works by Abe Gurvin such as the unforgettable cover of Car & Driver of May 1968, where a psychedelic drawing had been transferred to the hood of a Porches; the collection of drawings for the Casserole Cookbook kitchen, for the Sci-Tech science fiction series and the numerous hand-drawn illustrations for an editorial project of fairy tales (still unpublished today) called I Am Being Me by Ann di Hope.
Abe Gurvin served on the board of directors of SILA (Los Angeles Society of Illustrators); in 1988 Gurvin moved to a mansion in Laguna Beach, California and later to Santa Maria where he died at the age of 74.
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the only flat thing to believe is the LP record
My precious collection is clear evidence that anything can be a treasure. The most important aspect for me is not represented by the value of the articles, but by the joy that these have given me over the years.
The amazing world of Nonesuch
Abe Gurvin
Abe Gurvin (Attleboro, Massachusetts, December 31, 1937 - Santa Maria, [Santa Barbara County], California, July 9, 2012) was one of the most prolific and interesting American artists, among the greatest representatives of 'psychedelic art' (which, in San Francisco, it was an evolution of 'groovy' art, and which drew inspiration from the systematic use of LSD). The news about his educational and professional training are totally absent from the websites, while his works are very well known, loved and awarded: he has designed album covers for artists such as Janis Joplin, The Zodiac, Federal Duck and Bread, but the historic series of Nuggets album covers for Elektra, represents an authentic masterpiece that sanctioned, and somehow closed, an extraordinary artistic era
Abe Gurvin's portfolio included advertising work for companies such as Toyota, Coca-Cola, Disney, Suzuki, IBM, Marantz, Scholastic, Kenwood, Time-Life Books, Sony Music, and many more. He has received awards from One Show, Communication Arts, New York Art Directors, Best of Show, LA Society of Illustrators, New York Society of Illustrators, Los Angeles Art Directors Club, Society of Publication Designers and The Belding Award.
We remember some graphic works by Abe Gurvin such as the unforgettable cover of Car & Driver of May 1968, where a psychedelic drawing had been transferred to the hood of a Porches; the collection of drawings for the Casserole Cookbook kitchen, for the Sci-Tech science fiction series and the numerous hand-drawn illustrations for an editorial project of fairy tales (still unpublished today) called I Am Being Me by Ann di Hope.
Abe Gurvin served on the board of directors of SILA (Los Angeles Society of Illustrators); in 1988 Gurvin moved to a mansion in Laguna Beach, California and later to Santa Maria where he died at the age of 74.
Donald Leake
There is no news of Doland Leake on the various graphic and illustration history websites. The only certain fact is that he was active between 1960 and 1975, and his style is perfectly traceable to the current of 'psychedelic art'.
Gordon Kibbee
Of Gordon Kebbee nothing is known, except that he illustrated an excellent illustrated book for children, The Night the Moon Went Dark published in 2020. The few recent images (as of July 2022) of Kibbee show an elderly gentleman, resembling a good-natured Santa Claus, who may be a little over 80 years old. Kibbee is also an exponent of 'psychedelic art', but his colors contain many more shades and less abstract images than those of the great exponents of this artistic current.
William S Harvey
William S (tanley) Harvey (New York, November 10, 1920 - Los Angeles, July 15, 1993) was an American graphic designer, creator of the Elektra Records and Nonesuch logos, and art director of many of the album covers of these two labels between mid-1950s and 1972.
After the Second World War (he was drafted into the army) he worked as a designer and photographer in the advertising sector in his hometown. In 1953, Jac Holzman (famous American record company, entrepreneur and far-sighted talent scout) had founded the Elektra label and - in search of a graphic professional capable of attracting the buyer's attention - asked him to design the cover for a record by folk singer Hally Wood. The lettering used by Harvey for the word 'Elektra' became the label's official logo for the next decade, along with a stylized drawing of a guitarist. The design for the record cover was almost new to the market, and Jac Holzman sensed that Harvey's work was perfect for his record product. Richie Unterberger (noted American journalist and music critic) wrote: "Much of [Elektra's] reputation was due to the quality of its graphic presentation, in which innovative design, photography and lettering were key elements."
In 1958 Harvey was appointed sole artistic director of Elektra and in the 1960s he designed the distinctive logo for the band Love, of the Doors, the Bread and also created the new Elektra logo, the one in the shape of a butterfly. After Holzman sold Elektra to Warner Communications in 1972, Harvey was fired by the new head of the company, David Geffen; he later founded a new design company, Harvey House.
Gene Szafran
Gene Szafran's work is popular with science fiction book collectors: his covers for the series of novels written by Robert A. Heinlein, Robert Silverberg, Robert Hoskins, Angela Carter and for Ballantine Books in New York are part of the artistic heritage of this popular literary genre. His work as a discography designer is one of the richest and most impressive: made in a post-psychedelic style *, his production is particularly rich in sensual and erotic references, with photo clippings used with patchwork and re-colored techniques. with dense colors.
If Szafran's professional life has been a 'crescendo' of acclaim and awards for editorial graphics (in 1972 he won the Locus Award for the best editorial cover, in 1973 he won second place and entered - for two more times - in the ranking of the best 20 American graphic designers) with prestigious artistic collaborations - including Playboy, Fortune, Cosmopolitan, Elekta Records, MGM and RCA, his 'private' life experienced suffering and pain: born in Hamtramck, Michigan, on April 11, 1941 Szafran studied at the College for Creative Studies and Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit; in 1967 he moved to New York where he became a teacher at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. The artist married Marilyn Despres, became Alyssa's father, and the family moved from New York to Redding, Connecticut in the second half of the 1970s. Close to the 1980s, Gene Szafran experienced the ordeal of devastating multiple sclerosis, a disease that slowly robbed him of all ability to move. Resigned to their fate, and no longer able to carry out any work, the Szafran family returned to Detroit and lived out of the spotlight until the death of Gene, which occurred on January 8, 2011, not yet seventy.
* reference to this website, http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2021/08/09/gene-szafran-album-covers/ in which the designer John Coulthart dedicates a page to the art of Szafran and defines it - precisely - post-psichelelica
Bob Pepper
Bob (Ronald) Pepper was born in Los Angeles on October 23, 1938. He studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, attending courses in illustration and advertising design. In this inspiring school environment, Pepper met his future wife, Brenda Soderquist. After their marriage in the early 1960s, the couple moved to New York where Pepper established himself as a freelance artist for some publishing and record companies. His covers for the volumes of DAW Books (founded by Donald A. Wollheim in 1971), whose catalog was entirely dedicated to the fantasy and science fiction genre, are very famous. Tasty is the description of Pepper's art that 'a student of PKD' (i.e. Philip K(indred) Dick ', a well-known science fiction writer whose most famous short story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Provided the material for the script of the famous Ridley Scott film Blade Runner) on the 'Total Dick-Head' blog: 'His [artwork] is imbued with that hazy aura of culture American freak of the 70s. [I] use the term 'freak' quite consciously: first introduced by Frank Zappa in 1966, and often used by him, what is 'freak' identifies what falls within the experimental, surrealist, anti-authoritarian dimension - and far from healthy - of the counterculture."
The freak culture makes direct reference to the way of living the day of the 'hippie' world, distinguished by the freedom of customs, the use of LSD and being constantly unconventional and unconventional: if on the one hand the reading of Pepper's art leads to a re-dimensioning of psychedelic design, on the other it represents its evolution, a refinement that however I personally struggle to define 'freak'.
Yet, looking at Pepper's works, one cannot deny references (even 'quotes') to Renaissance art, Art Nouveau and Art Deco. When he worked, he normally produced works of art at twice the expected reproduction size, using the gouache technique, dyes on carbon paper and, sometimes, drawing directly on acetate.
From the mid-1960s until the early years of the next decade, Pepper made covers for about fifty records for RCA and (thanks to William Harvey) Elektra Records, including the Nonesuch and Checkmate labels; covers for the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series and the aforementioned series of covers by Philip K. Dick for DAW Books. In 1981, he created the artwork for Milton Bradley's Dragonmaster card game and the resulting electronic board game, Dark Tower. Fortunately his life was studded with successes and great satisfactions and, according to the tender messages of condolence for his disappearance (which took place in NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, on January 16, 2019) he was also: «passionate man; that he loved all forms of artistic expression; who liked to live and discover new things in New York; a person who has been actively present in his community and who has supported many local charitable causes. But above all, he was a genuinely good man who cared deeply about his family, his friends and his neighbors.»
Bob Ziegler
Bob Ziering was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1932. He studied art at the exclusive High School of Music and Art in New York City. After completing the preliminary course, he undertook further studies at New York University under the guidance of Hale Woodrugh, William Baziotes and Carl Podzus. After earning his bachelor's and teaching license in upstate New York, Ziering was suggested to create a creative portfolio and pursue a freelance path in illustration.
After completing his military service - and after doing an apprenticeship at some important New York art-publishing studios - Ziegler was hired at the art office of Reader's Digest; in the meantime he had also made contact with the world of industry and - in a short time - he was offered the partnership at Rahl Studios, a kind of agency for the training and interaction of graphic designers-illustrators-designers with the great American industries. Ziering was thus able to create excellent know-how in the advertising graphics sector.
In New York he taught at Commercial Art as a 'visiting professor'; later also at the School of Visual Arts, the Fashion Institute of Technology and, finally, the Pratt Institute.
Bob Ziegler was a member of the Pastel Society of America and was one of the founding members of the Graphic Artist's Guild: the world of illustration has always been the focus of his career for more than forty years, thanks to his very personal style and the skilful use of pencils and colors, authentic talents who are well documented by covers, exhibitions, prints, editorial advertisements and video productions.
His clients have included the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the Paul Taylor Dance Group and Cirque du Soleil. He has been awarded several ANDY awards, the highest honor given to commercial illustrators and his name has appeared in exhibitions, competitions and publications around the world and many of his illustrations have been exhibited at the Society of Illustrators, where Bob has held two personal exhibitions. Finally he is curator of prestigious exhibitions such as Rembrandt: 40 Years of a Face, Rembrandt and The Jews of Jodenbreestraat, Twilight of the Gorilla, Secret Sex, US Presidents and finally The Gym, My Models And Me. https://bobziering.com /
