Born 1899 in Kharkov, Russian-American illustrator Boris Artzybasheff was notable for his strongly worked and often surreal designs. His earliest work appeared in 1922 as illustrations for Verotchka’s Tales and The Undertaker’s Garland. A number of other book illustrations followed during the 1920s. Over the course of his career, he illustrated some 50 books, several of which he wrote, most notably As I See.
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| Posters designed by Boris Artzybasheff |
During his lifetime, however, Artzybasheff was probably known best for his magazine art. He illustrated the major American magazines Life, Fortune, and Time. He painted 219 Time covers from 1942 to 1966, including portraits of Dmitri Shostakovich (July 20, 1942), Louis Armstrong (February 21, 1949) and Dave Brubeck (November 8, 1954).
After 1940, Artzybasheff devoted himself to commercial art, including advertisements for Xerox, Shell Oil, Pan Am, Casco Power Tools, Alcoa Steamship lines, Parke-Davis, Avco Manufacturing, Scotch Tape, Wickwire Spencer Steel Company, Vultee Aircraft, World Airways, and Parker Pens.
Artzybasheff died in 1965 at the age of 66. Here below is a set of vintage posters designed by Boris Artzybasheff.
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| Three-Headed Dragon, circa 1920s |
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| Kazbek Beauty Products, 1923 |
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| The Line Book, 1929 |
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| Three and the Moon, Legendary Stories of Old Brittany, Normandy and Provence by Jacques Dorey, 1929 |
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| Three and the Moon, Legendary Stories of Old Brittany, Normandy and Provence by Jacques Dorey, 1929 |
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| Three and the Moon, Legendary Stories of Old Brittany, Normandy and Provence by Jacques Dorey, 1929 |
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| Aesop’s Fables, 1933 |
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| Stag Looking Into Water, 1933 |
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| “Melancholia”, from Neurotica, 1934 |
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| King Douda, from the book “Seven Simeons- A Russian Tale,” 1937 |
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| Seven Simeons, 1937 |
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| Seven Simeons, 1937 |
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| The Hunt, from the book “Seven Simeons- A Russian Tale,” 1937 |
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| The Last Trumpet, 1937 |
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| Art Week, Buy American Art, circa 1939 |
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| Nansen by Anna Gertrude Hall, 1940 |
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| The Incomplete Enchanter by Fletcher Pratt & L. Sprague de Camp, 1941 |
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| Propaganda, 1942 |
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| The Corn Kernel Constituents, Fortune Magazine, June 1943 |
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| Parker 51 ad, “Munition of Morale”, 1944 |
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| World Map of the Major Tropical Dieseases, 1944 |
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| “The Gwolphs of Saturn”, 1946 |
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| American Artist, October 1947 |
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| Anxiety-Frustration-Repressed Hostility, 1947 |
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| Alcoa Sails the Caribbean, 1948 |
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| Bermuda by Clipper, Pan Am, 1949 |
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| Hands Fighting, 1949 |
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| The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler, 1950 |
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| Ad for Shell X-100 Motor Oil, 1951 |
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| As I See, 1954 |
