Al Hirschfeld's Art - Research Paper Example

This made him become one of the most significant figures in contemporary art (Shea 4). Hirschfield was born in Missouri, St. Louis on June 21, 1903. His family moved to Manhattan when he was eleven, where he joined the Art Students League. On the tender age of seventeen, he already worked at Metro Goldwyn Pictures, later becoming the Selznick Studios artistic director. Hirschfield relocated from New York to France - Paris, where he expended much of his twenties studying art. He stood as a young man thriving through the art world in Paris and the theatrical world in New York when he toppled upon his passion (Shea 5).

One evening in the year 1926, he went to a theater with his friend Richard Maney, the legendary promotional agent. During the show, Al Hirschfield sketched Sasha Guidry, the French actor on his program. Richard Maney recognized Hirschfield’s talent instantly and invigorated him to reconstruct the sketch on a sheet of paper. Richard sold the finished slice to the Herald Tribune (Niemi 7). Shortly, Hirschfield’s work appeared in the press. Drawn in the dimmed theater, his simple yet unique images caught the responsiveness of much of the publishing world.

In 1929, he made a remarkable agreement work in New York Times. While working for the New York Times, the artist style gained unparalleled notoriety fetching synonymous with theatrical reputation. His aptitude to contain the spirit of an actor or a presentation in few lines made his exertion seem both honest and natural. Of his portraiture, Hepburn Katherine warned: “It tells the entire story - terrifying” (Clare Bell 38). For many, though, Hirschfield’s “the whole story” was their first exposure to a bigger audience.

According to Channing Carol, he was accountable for jump - starting her profession. “Al Hirschfield picked me out of twenty nonentities in a little review named “Lend an Ear”, and placed me on the fore page of the New York Times.” She added (Clare Bell 39). Throughout the 1940s, Hirschfield began to diversify as an artist, exemplifying books for authors including Fred Allen, Brooks Atkinson and S. J. Perlman. He continued to work on many artistic mediums including watercolor, etching, sculpture and lithography.

By the 1950s, his imagining stood universally recognized as a Broadway fundamental part and the rest of the theatrical world (Clare Bell 11). In the year 1951, he initiated work on a book in which he was both the illustrator and author – “show business is no business”. He eventually sequentially introduced “the world of Hirschfield” in 1968 in which, he clarified much of his autobiography and process. More than 10 years later he published his third book in 1979 titled, “Hirschfield by Hirschfield”.

During his long career, Hirschfield’s imagery has remained a keystone of the industry he adores with a passion. In their plain, unobtrusive manner, they have spoken volumes concerning their subjects and have renowned the modern history of a significant American art. Between this actor and the critic, Hirschfield carved out a room for himself in American and global theatrical culture. Al Hirschfield died at the age of 99, on January 20th, 2003. Though his caricatures often distort and exaggerate the faces of his focuses, he become often labeled as being an essentially "nicer" caricaturist than numerous of his contemporaries and his appeasement