Attempted Bloggery: Christoph Niemann

Showing posts with label Christoph Niemann. Show all posts

Thursday, January 30, 2025

The 1945 Eustace Tilley Printing Plates: "Covering The New Yorker"

The exhibition "Covering The New Yorker" is currently on view at L'Alliance New York. The show is curated by art editor Françoise Mouly and co-curated by Rodolphe Lachat in celebration of the magazine's centennial. The display focuses on original cover art that has appeared over the past thirty years under this art editor's tenure, as the signage at the entrance makes clear. Still, there are some surprises in store, including the copper plates used to print color separations of the cover of the 1945 anniversary issue.

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Christoph Niemann

Eustace Tilley: The Face of The New Yorker

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Thursday, October 31, 2024

Then and Now: Traffic Cones and The New Yorker

New York City's orange traffic cones can be seen all over town. They have occasionally made their way from the streets into the art of The New Yorker magazine. There is, for example, cartoonist Mort Gerberg's seasonally-themed "Sketchbook" from the issue of October 26, 1998:

"Sketchbook"
Mort Gerberg
The New Yorker, October 26, 1998, p. 258

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1998-10-26/flipbook/258/

This year, The New Yorker didn't publish a Halloween cover, or so the magazine would have us believe. Still, it is hard to imagine that the September 23 cover by Christoph Niemann wasn't at some point considered for the last week in October. Orange steam funnels and traffic cones inspire the evening fashion of one of the city's denizens. The New Yorker can call this the Fall Style & Design cover all it wants, but to me it still looks like a Halloween cover. I see what I see.

"Smoke and Mirrors"
Christoph Niemann
The New Yorker, September 23, 2024

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/2024-09-23/flipbook/CV1/

Note: Interested coneheads can find the original 1998 art by Mort Gerberg at the end of my post on his New-York Historical Society exhibition here. Christoph Niemann's original art, on the other hand, is presumably not a work on paper and never to be displayed on a gallery wall.

Last month, on his Ink Spill blog, cartoonist Michael Maslin noted how magazine cover art imitates life, citing this 2017 Halloween costume.

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Monday, August 3, 2015

New 2016 Calendars: The New Yorker and Edward Gorey

The new wall calendars for 2016 have arrived. They are probably on sale just about everywhere by now but I came across them over the weekend at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The New Yorker's 2016 entry calls itself The New Yorker Covers Poster Calendar 2016 which is nearly as awkward to read to yourself as it is to say out loud. The calendar's cover reproduces the 2012 Innovators Issue magazine cover "The Cloud" by Bob Staake. On the calendar's back cover, we get to see the magazine describe itself as "Iconic design. Iconic New Yorker." Apparently they left out the part about humble. Calendar covers are by Mark Ulriksen, Charles E. Martin, Maira Kalman, Jacques de Loustal, Birgit Schössow, Adolph K. Kronengold, Garrett Price, Christoph Niemann, Eric Drooker, Arthur Getz, Jorge Colombo, and once again Bob Staake. Helpful advice is offered for those who wish to "First hang it as a calendar--then frame it as art!" Let's face it: you could do worse.

The New Yorker Covers Poster Calendar 2016

Now the Edward Gorey 2016 Calendar describes the artist as "famous for masterful pen-and-ink cross-hatched drawings and ironic, offbeat humor." While I might quibble a bit with the use of "cross-hatched" to describe the great variety of detailed pen-and-ink work for which Edward Gorey is acclaimed, I nevertheless find this calendar's blurb to be pretty accurate and without pretense. The cover illustration is a wonderful set-piece called "An Exhibition." I certainly would have no quibbles about gazing at an image of this quality every month.

Edward Gorey 2016 Calendar

Note: You're in luck! This blog has a few posts on many of these artists:

Bob Staake

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Christoph Niemann Embracing Dental Care

Christoph Niemann's 2012 silkscreen print of a toothbrush and toothpaste embracing is being offered at auction on eBay this week by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. Bidding starts at $50. It is also available on Mr. Niemann's website for $100, or in a larger size for $500. Both sizes are available in a pink edition as well.