The World Trade Center opened in 1973 in lower Manhattan. The twin towers were briefly the world's tallest buildings until the completion of the Sears Tower in Chicago, now the Willis Tower. They were massive structures boldly dominating the New York City skyline and, love them or hate them, they just couldn't be ignored.
R. O. Blechman's 1974 New Yorker cover put the World Trade Center front and center and paid homage to the City's Dutch origins by depicting fanciful windmills on the buildings. Arthur Getz's 1982 cover gives the best sense of the towers's scale against the lower Manhattan skyline. In most of the New Yorker's cover art that appeared prior to 9/11, though, the World Trade Center was not the sole focus, but rather was the most outsized of the many notable landmarks of which the City boasted.
Robert Weber, December 3, 1973
R. O. Blechman, April 29, 1974
Eugène Mihaesco, December 27, 1976
Paul Degen, May 8, 1978
Eugène Mihaesco, May 14, 1979
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| Charles Addams, May 5, 1980 |
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| Arthur Getz, July 19, 1982 |
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| Bob Knox, May 2, 1988 |
Robert Mankoff, August 22, 1988
John O'Brien, April 9, 1990
Bob Knox, September 17, 1990
Gürbüz Doğan Ekşioğlu, March 22, 1993
Jacques de Loustal, October 11, 1993
City of Dreams by Edward Sorel, February 22, 1999
Center of the Universe by Mark Ulriksen, January 10, 2000
Note: My previous post on artist R. O. Blechman is here.
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What a wonderful selection. It always depresses me to think how many magazines have thrown off any interest in illustrated covers and simply replaced them with photographs of celebrities etc. The official BBC listings magazine Radio Times was once celebrated for encouraging the use of artists and this article does show a few of them...
ReplyDeletehttp://mikedempsey.typepad.com/graphic_journey_blog/2011/08/sign-of-the-times.html
Thanks, Professor! I couldn't agree more. That's a great post by Mike Dempsey you linked to, and the comments there are rather spirited!
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