Monday, November 30, 2020

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #735

You can stick a fork in my entry to The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #735 for November 30, 2020. The drawing is by Johnny DiNapoli.

"These days I'm consumed with guilt."



December 13, 2020 Update:  The Finalists





December 14, 2020 Update:
  This week I neglected my Constitutional right to vote. I like the caption from Somerville best.


December 28, 2020 Update:  The Winner




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Sunday, November 29, 2020

At the Horse Show: Garrett Price Proposed New Yorker Cover Art

Garrett Price's New Yorker cover proposal depicts equestrian activities including show jumping and harness racing. The composition resembles a sketchbook page and does not attempt to show a single unified scene. Of note, Price has worked a number of figures into the area of the logo and seems to be planning how horses and people would interact with most every letter. It was an ambitious idea but not one ever to be developed into a published cover.



Garrett Price's signature


Garrett Price
eBay listing ended August 14, 2020





Garrett Price
eBay item description

Garrett Price
eBay bid history
The last bid gets it.
[End of eBay listing]


Of course, one can never know for sure why a particular cover proposal wasn't accepted by The New Yorker, but it can still be a useful exercise to conjecture. The published New Yorker covers which include show jumping (but not harness riding) are shown below for comparison with the Price rough. They each represent a single unified scene and have a specific artistic point of view. The Price cover seems to lack a central focus; there is just too much going on all at once.

Theodore Haupt's 1928 cover depicts the pageantry of show jumping with an emphasis on the hazards of the sport:
Theodore G. Haupt
The New Yorker, November 10, 1928

Constantin Alajálov's 1939 cover notes a horse show with a bareback distraction:
Constantin Alajálov
The New Yorker, November 11, 1939


Edna Eicke's demonstration derby is just adorable. The activity is held together by the circular track:
Edna Eicke
The New Yorker, June 18, 1949



Ilonka Karasz's 1957 cover contrasts the chaotic parking in the foreground with the strict order inside the arena:
Ilonka Karasz
The New Yorker, May 11, 1957


In many ways, Arthur Getz's 1957 cover takes the exact opposite approach to that of Price, focusing in extreme close-up on a single horse and rider clearing the log fence:
Arthur Getz
The New Yorker, November 9, 1957



Note:  The winning bidder of the eBay auction has gone public here.

I would love to use Attempted Bloggery to post additional original art by Garrett Price. After all, what is an attempted blog for?

 
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Saturday, November 28, 2020

New to the Gallery: Garrett Price Original New Yorker Cover Art

Garrett Price came into his own this week, at least in terms of the art market. An original cover illustration for The New Yorker from the summer of 1951 sold for a healthy $6120 at Bonhams New York. Whether that is or isn't a record price for the artist I don't know, but it is impressive.

Garrett Price
Original art
The New Yorker,  August 11, 1951


And what a cover illustration it is! Price is a master at depicting different artistic genres, but it is the cultural clash he has depicted here that resonates. The art we choose to surround ourselves with defines the tastes we aspire to and even to some extent the people we aspire to be. The surrealist painting being carried into a gallery full of representational works reminds us of a broad swath of the public's discomfort with the advent of modern art in America since the Armory Show of 1913. Dislike and even derision of modernism is widespread to this day.


The condition report gives the work high marks, noting that "the medium appears well preserved and the pigments have maintained their brilliance overall." Have they? To my eye, the reds in the original have faded considerably, leaving it with a bluish cast. Compare the colors of the published cover:

Garrett Price
The New Yorker,  August 11, 1951

The hammer price



The sale price, including buyer's premium



Note:  Well, now that I've gone and made a claim I can't verify, I suppose I should ask publicly whether this is indeed an auction record for Garrett Price. Anybody want to field that?


Images of original art by Garrett Price are welcome here on the blog. Even abstract works of his will be graciously accepted, despite the mumblings of the masses.


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Friday, November 27, 2020

Garrett Price: Out of Sight

An undated cartoon rough by Garrett Price was sold on eBay in August. The seller, Illustration House, dates it circa 1945 and specifically calls it a "New Yorker cartoon sketch," which seems reasonable enough. I don't believe it was ever published there, but it may have been worked into a finish and published in some other publication.

"Where are you? Get where Mummy can see you."
Garrett Price

Garrett Price
eBay listing ended August 31, 2020
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Garrett-Price-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Sketch-Signed-circa-1945-mother-amp-child-/143702026343?hash=item21754ee867%3Ag%3AdIoAAOSw5m9fRwbQ&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Garrett Price
eBay item description

Garrett Price
eBay bid history
Just one bid a day early




Note:  Was this rough eventually worked into a finish and published? Please drop a line if you know.


Original art by Garrett Price is always of interest here at Attempted Bloggery. Images are welcome.


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Thursday, November 26, 2020

Giving Thanks 2020

Charles E. Martin
The New Yorker, November 26, 1966

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1966-11-26/flipbook/CV1/


I want to use today to thank those generous individuals who have contributed to this blog over the past year. It's been a difficult year for all of us, but this blogging pursuit has been blessed with more support than ever in 2020. Frankly, the number and quality of the submissions has quite often taken my breath away. Friends, I thank each and every one of you:

Tom Bloom

Dick Buchanan

Scott Burns

John Colquhoun

David from Manhattan

Frank Ferrante

A Friend of the Blog

Sarah Getz

Claude Haber

Joel Jacobus

Stephen Kroninger

Joe Petro III

Steve Stoliar

Jerome Wrinkle


Labels linking to posts made possible by each of these contributors may be found below, with the exception of A Friend of the Blog, who causes me to exceed my 200-character limit on labels. A link instead is provided here.


My thanks also to those family members and friends who have helped me out in a great variety of ways, usually anonymously. You know who you are. I also wish to thank my family for putting up with this whole outlandish pursuit of mine.


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Wednesday, November 25, 2020

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest #102

Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's the Cartoon Collections Caption Contest #102! My captions are below. The drawing is by Evan Lian.

"Up, up, and toupee!"
"I stole it from Lex Luthor."
"Dammit, it's Kryptonite."
"Either I wear this or go back to my Fortress of Solitude."
"I fight for Truth, Justice, and the American Wig."
"Is this mild-mannered enough?"


December 2, 2020 Update:  The Winner






Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

  

 
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Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Gilbert Bundy: Fair Warning

In Gilbert Bundy's Esquire cartoon from the October 1953 issue, Mr. Ostack is given due notice:

"We've got to stop this drinking, Mr. Ostack, or I won't know what I'm doing[.]"
Gilbert Bundy
Esquire, October 1953, page 56





My reading of this, then, is that the blonde woman in yellow and blue knows exactly what she's doing with the older gentleman. But do we know that for sure? If she is unaware of the implications of her pending loss of control, this becomes a much darker gag.


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Monday, November 23, 2020

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #734

You'll have to hold still for my entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #734 dated November 23, 2020. The drawing is by Ellis Rosen.

"It's time for you to come clean."



November 30, 2020 Update:  The Finalists




December 13, 2020 Update:
  I went with the caption from Oostburg.



December 14, 2020 Update:
  The Winner




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Sunday, November 22, 2020

James Thurber: "The Cat and the Riddle" Musical Program

"The Cat and the Riddle" was performed by the Scarlet Mask Club of Ohio State University on February 4-6, 1924. Billed as "a two act musical mystery" by James G. Thurber '19, the score is credited to eighteen songwriting collaborators, and Thurber was the lyricist in at least one of the numbers. Today it seems an extravagance to publish the sheet music for a three-night production, but it gives us what must be the best record we have of the performance today. Thurber's dialogue has evidently been lost. The musical program, currently listed on eBay, is not surprisingly quite scarce.



James Thurber
"The Cat and the Riddle" Musical Program
eBay listing accessed November 21, 2020


James Thurber
"The Cat and the Riddle" Musical Program
eBay item description



Is $399.99 a fair price for such a program? The market will have to decide that. One wishes one had noted the listing on Everything but the House (EBTH) back in September, where a different copy sold for what was clearly way too little:
James Thurber
"The Cat and the Riddle" Musical Program
Everything but the House listing ended September 18, 2020






"Javaland"
Words by James G. Thurber '19
Music by Robert B. Jennings '26








No copy of this musical program had been located by Edwin T. Bowden when he compiled his Thurber bibliography in 1968:
Bowden, Edwin T. James Thurber:  A Bibliography. Ohio State University Press, 1968, p. 210


Bowden, Edwin T. James Thurber:  A Bibliography. Ohio State University Press, 1968, p. 212

Bowden, Edwin T. James Thurber:  A Bibliography. Ohio State University Press, 1968, p. 228







Note:  Thanks to Scott Burns of Armadillo & Dicker Books for bringing the eBay listing to my attention.


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