State of the Art: Illustration 100 Years After Howard Pyle

State of the Art: Illustration 100 Years After Howard Pyle
Delaware Art Museum
February 9, 2013 – June 1, 2013

The Delaware Art Museum is pleased to present State of the Art: Illustration 100 Years After Howard Pyle. On view February 9, 2013 – June 1, 2013, this exciting exhibition features over 60 works of art from eight of the most important artists working in contemporary illustration.

In 2011, the Museum launched its Centennial celebration with a major retrospective dedicated to illustrator Howard Pyle. State of the Art: Illustration 100 Years After Howard Pyle marks the celebration’s end and reflects on Pyle’s legacy in the field of illustration.

In the century following Pyle’s death in 1911, American illustration has diversified into a creative empire that includes a wide range of art forms. From animated films and computer-generated images to graphic novels and conceptual art, America’s storytelling artists use the latest technologies and a variety of media to communicate with ever-increasing audiences.

Guest Curator David Apatoff, illustration scholar and author of biographies on Robert Fawcett and Albert Dorne, highlights the following eight artists: story illustrator Bernie Fuchs; graphic designer Milton Glaser; MAD caricaturist and comic artist Mort Drucker; The New Yorker cover artist and character designer for animated films, Peter de Sève; editorial artist John Cuneo; painter and book artist Phil Hale; painter and magazine illustrator Sterling Hundley; and Pixar production designer Ralph Eggleston.

“No single exhibition could possibly do justice to the noisy, rambunctious history of illustration over the past century,” explains Apatoff. “I’ve chosen instead to feature eight individuals whose diverse talents demonstrate that illustration is no longer the singular profession it was in Pyle’s day. It pervades our culture, reaching out to us from billboards, television, store windows, and computer screens.”