Once upon a time
there were two very rich and famous men born in very different times, in very different places and yet still they had something in common…
their art.
Whilst one was primarily a filmmaker and the other was famous for his prints, and both having explored the wildest parts of their creative side, neither were very well famed for the thing they had in common - illustration. This was nothing less than a great loss to the world for they were both gifted in this particular art form.
The first man was Andy Warhol, born in the magical time of 1928 in the far away kingdom of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The son of working-class immigrants, Warhol had a hard childhood as he spent most of his time bedridden because of this he was an outcast among the students at his school and became very close with his mother. Warhol showed an incredible talent in the arts from a young age. He was an excellent artist who started off his career as a magazine illustrator in advertising - despite the fact that he had originally believed he wanted to become an art teacher - after he gained his BA in Graphic Design from Carnegie Institute of Technology. Although his commercial work in advertising would never be what made his claim to fame it was what gained his success and advertising would heavily influence his later work as a lot of his focus was on celebrity culture and mass production as seen in his reproductions of branded items such as his famous Cambell's Soup prints. His most famous work during his time as an illustrator however was his drawings for shoe advertisements.
Towards that end of his life Warhol focussed much more on the film medium, however in whatever form he never ceased in his creation until he died in New York in 1987 at only fifty eight.
Whilst his blotted ink style illustrations didn't make his fame his beautiful shoe advertisements got his name known in the world of art. This incredibly gifted man is one of my favourite contemporary artists because of the magical colours and whimsical style he uses. It's these things that make these illustrations so child-like and yet wondrous at the same time. Despite his later work being far more popular I find this earlier work much more preferable as they appear to have a lot more character in them than the cold hard colours and lines of his Pop Art work. Whilst this is true you can also clearly see some of the themes he will use in later work, largely his use of repetition.
The second man came about thirty years later in 1958 hailing from the great land of Burbank, California, and his name is Tim Burton. His mother owned a cat-themed gift shop whilst his father was a former minor league baseball player, an unusual start for an unusual man.
Since he was but a small child film has been Burton's passion, and as a boy Burton would create crude stop-motion films in his back garden. Finding solace in his art and film, Burton was not a particularly good student however once he graduated he went on to the California Institute of the Arts to study character animation and would even continue to work with some of classmates later on. Burton started his career with Disney after having been offered an animator's apprenticeship, however as is obvious in his work, his style clashed with that of the company and he wished with all his heart to work on solo projects which he would soon go on to do.
Now, to this day the great Mr. Tim Burton earns his keep as an incredibly influential film director, producer, writer and artist. He's currently well known for his unusual films that repeatedly star his wife Helena Bonham Carter and his close friend Johnny Depp. Whilst he may not be well known for his illustrative work he has had some success with it as is the case with his five month exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art in New York where he had over seven hundred pieces of work including drawings, paintings, photographs, storyboards and moving-image works etc.
During this time Burton also received the insignia of Chevalier of Arts and Letters from the Minister of Culture, a dream come true for any artist.
While this great man is known for his fantastical and freaky films he's also acquainted with the fair world of illustration. His illustrative world, much like his films are full of wonder, insanity and all the things that go bump in the night. The fantastical nature of his work is what makes it so easy to love and what I love about it myself. The horror influences on his work that makes it this way is something you don't find in much work but very little in illustration. Burton was influenced by many of his childhood loves such as Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl, as well as some of his darker influences such as the work of Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King.
These two great men have very different styles, although there are some similarities one in particular is their child like manner although achieved in different ways it still seems that they both should be found among the pages of children's books. Both artists have a slight comical edge to their work which is something I find to be incredibly attractive in their work and whilst one is no longer with use the other continues to make this incredible work for the world to see. And they all lived (though not in all cases) happily - as they could be - ever after.
The End
