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.

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.

Three-Headed Dragon, circa 1920s

Kazbek Beauty Products, 1923

The Line Book, 1929

Three and the Moon, Legendary Stories of Old Brittany, Normandy and Provence by Jacques Dorey, 1929

Three and the Moon, Legendary Stories of Old Brittany, Normandy and Provence by Jacques Dorey, 1929

Three and the Moon, Legendary Stories of Old Brittany, Normandy and Provence by Jacques Dorey, 1929

Aesop’s Fables, 1933

Stag Looking Into Water, 1933

“Melancholia”, from Neurotica, 1934

King Douda, from the book “Seven Simeons- A Russian Tale,” 1937

Seven Simeons, 1937

Seven Simeons, 1937

The Hunt, from the book “Seven Simeons- A Russian Tale,” 1937

The Last Trumpet, 1937

Art Week, Buy American Art, circa 1939

Nansen by Anna Gertrude Hall, 1940

The Incomplete Enchanter by Fletcher Pratt & L. Sprague de Camp, 1941

Propaganda, 1942

The Corn Kernel Constituents, Fortune Magazine, June 1943

Parker 51 ad, “Munition of Morale”, 1944

World Map of the Major Tropical Dieseases, 1944

“The Gwolphs of Saturn”, 1946

American Artist, October 1947

Anxiety-Frustration-Repressed Hostility, 1947

Alcoa Sails the Caribbean, 1948

Bermuda by Clipper, Pan Am, 1949

Hands Fighting, 1949

The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler, 1950

Ad for Shell X-100 Motor Oil, 1951

As I See, 1954

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