The Illustrated Gallery::215-740-0205

Hans Amis, born in Canton, China, in 1957, is a graduate of the Fine Art College in Canton and a member of the China Association of Fine Art, China.

Upon his arrival in the United States in 1985 he has assumed the French name "Hans Amis".

Schooled in the Oriental tradition of art, his paintings reveal an in-depth understanding of and facility with the Occidental approach to painting.

His portraiture, romanticizing the female figure, recalls in different studies both the 18th century English court painter as well as the 19th century French outdoor painter.

The viewer may be particularly drawn to the artist's fascination with the beauty in the female form as well as in landscape. The handling of flowers, lush and painterly, is especially accomplished.

The first phase of Impressionism tends to get overlooked in favor of the color experiments of Monet and Seurat. Originally, the Impressionists were interested in capturing life on the street -- in movement, ephemeral, natural -- which became an exercise in parsimony: laying down the fewest strokes in the quickest time to sufficiently describe moving targets like dancers or circus performers. This type of Impressionism had a powerful influence for decades afterward because it turned out to be useful.

By the 1890s, a revolution occurred in the print media: the invention of the halftone plate (the familiar dots that make up a newspaper picture), allowing books, newspapers and magazines to have shaded pictures while skipping the laborious and inaccurate engravings. To satisfy the huge demand for accurate pictures on deadline, young artists joined the rebellion against time-consuming academic methods.

To maintain good draftsmanship at high speed is extremely difficult, and the artists who could render perfectly "at first stroke" (or "premier coup" or "alla prima") achieved renown. Sargent, Sorolla, Whistler, Henri and Zorn were revered by illustrators. This last was a particular influence on fellow Swede Haddon Sundblom, the subject of our little exhibit.

Sundblom gets pigeonholed as the painter of Coca-Cola Santa Clauses, but this trivializes his central place in 20th century advertising art. More than any artist including Norman Rockwell, Sundblom defined the American Dream in pictures, proved by his work for virtually the entire Fortune 500. [Among his still-living legacy is the Quaker Oats man, posed by his assistant Harold Macauley.] Our show focuses on an advertising campaign Sundblom did for the Cream of Wheat company in the later 1920s. It was a departure from their previous imagery, featuring their chef holding the product. Sundblom's focus was on children in various phases of growing up healthy and happy thanks to their hot cereal breakfasts. His pictures were attractive and universal.

By the 1950s, when much of Sundblom's work was done by assistants, and his slick imagery encroached on the insincere, it's less interesting. But back in the 1920s, his pictures were more personal, his characters more real, and his technique was much closer to its Impressionist origins, capturing the essence of his subjects in a few quick -- but perfectly placed -- strokes.

BERNIE FUCHS, 76

Illustrator's Works Defined an Era

Bernie Fuchs, 76, an illustrator whose influential work for magazines ranging from Cosmopolitan to Sports Illustrated seamlessly blended qualities of traditional narrative with hints of abstract composition, died of esophageal cancer Sept. 17 at a care facility in Fairfield, Conn. He lived in nearby Westport.

Mr. Fuchs was adept at balancing art and commerce. He met the needs of mass-circulation magazines accustomed to Norman Rockwell-style realism, but he injected a fresh vitality and impressionism that became hugely popular and transformed the illustration field. He even experimented with bold designs based on the abstract expressionism movement popularized by painters Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

One vivid example, commissioned by McCall's magazine in the late 1950s, was a portrait of two young couples relaxing in a small room after dinner. One man is lying on the ground, his head nestled on a woman's lap and smoking a cigarette as she strokes his hair.

While the image has the control and realism of Rockwell, it also has several more dynamic features taken from avant-garde techniques: the vigorous brush strokes; the tilted horizon that heightens a sense of drama; a lampshade in the foreground that appears slightly distorted; and, most strikingly, the placement of the couples in the distance instead of being the center of the picture.

"Bernie combined the best of both worlds," said illustrator Murray Tinkelman, who directs the University of Hartford's master of fine arts program and chairs the New York-based Society of Illustrators' hall of fame committee. "He became the most emulated and imitated illustrator in the field through the 1980s . . . when the vogue turned to more decorative, whimsical, punkier illustrations that were influenced by underground cartoons like those of Robert Crumb."

Mr. Fuchs entered the hall of fame in 1975. He was among the youngest inductees on a roster that includes Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth, Winslow Homer and John James Audubon.

Bernard Leo Fuchs was born Oct. 19, 1932, in the coal mining town of O'Fallon, Ill., and his father soon abandoned the family. As a young man, Mr. Fuchs enjoyed drawing characters from Walt Disney movies and "The Wizard of Oz," but his main interest became jazz trumpet.

He worked in a machine shop after high school, and the loss of three fingers from his right hand ended his musical ambitions. He enrolled in art school out of desperation, figuring it was his only career prospect.

The money he received from the accident paid for his art training at Washington University in St. Louis, where he graduated in 1954. About this time, he married his high school sweetheart, Anna Lee Hesse. She survives, living in Westport, along with their three children, Cynthia Fuchs of Washington, Derek Fuchs of Casselberry, Fla., and Ellise Fuchs of Torino, Italy; and three grandchildren.

After college, Mr. Fuchs went to work for a commercial art studio in Detroit and found immediate success drawing the latest car models for magazines, brochures and billboards. He captured the chrome-dappled allure of the auto industry: happy Americans enjoying themselves at picnics and on golf courses and accompanied by their elegant cars.

"Others might portray a married couple dressed formally in suits dazzled by a car on the street, or a woman in a fancy ball gown swooning over a car in a showroom, but Bernie's innovation was to put the cars in real life situations with people in all kinds of informal poses, having fun and even in some cases standing in front of the car (heresy!)," illustration authority David Apatoff wrote in an e-mail.

Several top corporations in America took note of Mr. Fuchs's skill. He relocated to suburban Connecticut in the late 1950s and became one of the busiest commercial artists of the next 20 years, working for businesses such as Coca-Cola and Seagram's, as well as magazines including TV Guide and Look.

For the publications, he created a range of illustrations, with scenes from romance fiction and images that conveyed the grit of athletes and the determination of presidents and civil rights leaders.

Mr. Fuchs often photographed his subjects and returned to his studio to turn the images into illustrations. He said his most challenging deadline story came in 1969, when Sports Illustrated assigned him to cover the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., and the Orange Bowl in Miami. He saw the Rose Bowl live, lurking on the sidelines with his camera, and watched the game in Miami on television. He finished six paintings in 36 consecutive hours of work.

In the course of a prolific career, he met many historic figures of his era, including President John F. Kennedy, baseball player Jackie Robinson, entertainers Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope, and cellist Pablo Casals, who, ailing at 93, nevertheless played a Bach cantata for Mr. Fuchs at the musician's villa in Puerto Rico.

Starting in the mid-1970s, Mr. Fuchs had contracts to illustrate postage stamps and children's books. His paintings, whose subjects ranged from images of the Old West to the Longchamps horse races in France, were exhibited in galleries worldwide. Jill Bossert, editor of Society of Illustrators books, once described Mr. Fuchs's skill: "His colors shine with the brilliance of stained glass as if lit from within. His equine pictures rival Degas."

Charles F. Ellis passed on October 1^st, 2004 at the age of 82. Mr. Ellis was hired

to teach illustration in 1971 at the newly opened Art Institute of Philadelphia. He remained at the school for 22 years, teaching promising pupils such as poster artist Richard Amsel and painter Jamie Wyeth, who became a friend.

Mr. Ellis also worked as a commercial artist for local advertising agencies; did illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post, Jack and Jill Magazine, The Inquirer’s Sunday Magazine and other publications; and painted portraits for wealthy clients.

While studying art in Philadelphia, he worked at Taws art-supply store and attracted customers by painting watercolors in the store window. In August 1988, he again painted for the public in the window of the Gallery of the Art Institute of Philadelphia.

Mr. Ellis graduated from the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art (now University of the Arts), where he later taught. He also studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

despite high visibility, low price-points and mass appeal, illustration art is still under many collectors' radar

"I feel very comfortable predicting that art historians 50 years from now ... will look back upon the illustrators as the great American artists of the second half of the 20th century." So said author Tom Wolfe in an interview conducted by illustrator C.F. Payne and posted on the Illustrators' Partnership of America's Web site.

Andy Warhol would probably turn in his grave at the thought. So would Lichtenstein, Picasso, Pollack--names that art aficionados and dilettantes have fawned over for decades. But Wolfe is not alone in his prediction. Many in the industry not only see contemporary art perceptibly shifting away from abstract expressionism and back to representational, figurative formats, but point to a resurgent interest in artwork done by illustrators as heralding the change. Even influential institutions have reacted to the trend; just over two years ago, for instance, New York's Guggenheim Museum hosted "Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People."

Still, the illustration art niche has had obstacles to overcome. Critics often snub their noses at the plebian appeal of illustration art, and galleries can disregard artists who list illustration experience on their resumes. Most disturbing is the decrease in the publishing and advertising markets' appetite for original illustrated artwork in recent years. Will the nascent interest by the fine-art community help illustration art regain its former glory and a newfound respect among collectors?

To many, the most discernable difference between illustration art and fine art is that, while both combine subject matter with design, subject matter is the primary focus of illustration.

"Those people might think what I do is a trifle and meaningless, but to me it really doesn't matter as long as I can express myself," said Craft from her home in Norfolk, Conn., about art critics disregarding illustrative work. "I don't know how illustration slipped down like that. It used to be people looked at illustration and enjoyed it."

"There tends to be a stigma in the fine-art world about illustration," agreed Angie Sullins, president of Duirwaigh Gallery and Publishing in Atlanta, which has been representing Craft's work since 2002. "We've found that 'illustration' tends to be a dirty word."

Sometimes, when critics shun illustration art, the collectors follow. But most of Sullins' clients, she noted, are attracted to illustration art specifically because it has been published and has more recognition--and therefore, in their eyes, more value. "For us, illustration is fine art," she said. "It matters more what passion, vision and technical proficiency is in the image."

The New York-based Society of Illustrators, founded in 1901, is another institution trying to educate the public about illustration artwork. Its Museum of American Illustration possesses more than 2,500 original works of art created from 1838 to the present.

"People think illustrators are hired hands--[they're] anything but," said director Terrence Brown. "They're artists, and they want to put themselves into everything they do, even though it has to be a picture of George Bush; even though it has to be vertical because TIME magazine is published vertically; even though it has to have the top 20 percent relatively detail-free so that the T-I-M-E shows." Illustrators often have to accomplish all this in a tight deadline of days or even hours. "There's no downtown gallery painter who even has a chance of doing that," he said.

"I think, right now, illustration is entering a heyday," he said. "There are some incredible artists doing work out there.... There are also a lot of serious collectors who feel the market for illustration art at this point is seriously undervalued."

Perhaps the single biggest reason that illustration art is due to take off is its accessibility. It attracts people who, in the past, wouldn't normally consider themselves art collectors. And, compared to some other contemporary art, it's just plain easier to understand.

"You go into the Guggenheim or the Modern, you stand before something, and you have to work," said Brown. "You have no idea what to think about that painting. Stand in front of this," he motioned behind his desk to a painting of a sultry woman in a white dress propped up against a classic," cruiser, "and you go, 'yeaaaah'. The story is there. Once you get the story, you can really stare at it and enjoy the craft."

United Airlines recently launched a new advertising campaign using illustration and animation that has captured plenty of attention. A company spokesperson reported very positive feedback after a commercial featuring a job applicant with mismatched shoes aired

"That is the power of illustration," said Ken Dubrowski, an illustrator and director of operations for the Marshfield, Mass.-based Illustrators' Partnership of America (IPA). "It makes people feel unique. It's something that stands out.

Affordability, combined with accessibility, makes this market almost irresistible to those who discover it. "Don't rule out that the American public is more Wal-Mart than it is Guggenheim," Brown said.

Experts advise that gallery owners interested in pursuing illustration art should familiarize themselves with the field. Seeing the original work first-hand is imperative. There are traveling shows that visit various art schools, such as the Rhode Island School of Design; the University of the Arts in Philadelphia; the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Fla.; and the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. By doing their homework, gallery owners are better able to introduce clients to a burgeoning market of relatively unexplored, yet significant, art. "When owning these pieces, you re no just buying illustration art," said Enos, you re buying a little piece of illustration history.

* The Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrations, (212) 838-2560