AL HIRSCHFELD

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on the first day of summer,1903. Albert Hirschfeld is known primarily for his graphic design work and pen and ink caricatures in his position as Theatre Caricaturist for the New York Times. He has earned 23 awards including a special Tony Award in 1984. When he was eleven years old, an art teacher informed his mother, "There is nothing more we can teach him in St. Louis." The family moved forthwith to New York. Soon he was enrolled at the National Academy of Design and the Art Student’s League. Hirschfeld has never had to convince anyone that he’s a genius; it has always been apparent. By the ripe old age of 17, while his contemporaries were learning how to sharpen pencils, Hirschfeld became an art director at Selznick Pictures. He held the position for about four years and then in 1924 he moved to Paris to work, attended the Academy Julian ,lead the Bohemian life, and grow a beard. This he has retained - the beard, not the flat - for the past 68 years, presumably because you never know when your oil burner will go on the fritz. In 1943, Hirschfeld married one of Europe’s most famous actresses, the late Dolly Haas. Their marriage was one of the happiest I’ve ever seen; in addition, it produced Nina. Nina is their daughter, and Hirschfeld has engaged in the "harmless insanity," as he calls it, of hiding her name at least once in each of his drawings. The number of NINAs concealed is shown by an Arabic numeral to the right of his signature.Generally, if no number is to be found, either NINA appears once or the drawing was executed before she was born, in 1945. Almost all of Hirschfeld’s lithographs and etchings have NINAs hidden in them, but Hirschfeld makes the pursuit that much more difficult by omitting the number next to the signature. It’s interesting, that although Hirschfeld was initially attracted to sculpture and painting, this gave way to his passion for pure line. "Sculpture," he once said “ is a drawing you trip over in the dark." Hirschfeld’s devotion to line comes from yet a more fundamental aesthetic - his respect for absolute simplicity. Sometimes he does a drawing inspired by a complex play with elaborate scenery, extravagant costumes, and a cast of thousands -yet the drawing is simple. Other times the play is simple with a straightforward set, and costumes that are street clothes - yet the drawing is complicated. When he was asked if when he had the time he did a complex drawing and when he was rushed he did a simple one, he answeresd: "When I’m rushed I do a complicated drawing. When I have the time, I do a simple one." In spite of his immense popularity between audiences and showbiz celebrities, Hirschfeld knew that his job was a hard one. He assisted to every theater premiere in Broadway, where he took sketches of each actor during the play, takin so the essence of the personality of each one of them . Some actors enjoyed very much being drawn by Al, and even asked him to give them the original drawings. CaroloBurnett and Joan Collins were some of the grate ful ones. Other ones saw the cartoons astonished, saying : “ But I don’t have suich a long neck and such a prominent jaw!” , as Carol Channing said. Maybe caricature is an art enjoyable by everyone, except for the one portraited. In 1991, Al Hirschfeld became the first artist in history to have his name on a U.S. Postage Stamp Booklet when the United States Postal Service released the five stamps they commissioned Hirschfeld to design. The stamps portray Laurel & Hardy, Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy,Abbott & Costello, and Fanny Brice. The stamps were issued in books of 20 - four sets each of the five Hirschfeld designs. These Hirschfeld Postage Stamps were so successful that the United States Postal Service once again commissioned Hirschfeld to wield his pen on their behalf. In 1994, a new series of Hirschfeld Postage Stamps were issued, each portraying one of Hollywood’s celebrated stars of the silent screen era. This series of commemorative Hirschfeld Stamps honors Rudolf Valentino, Clara Bow, Charlie Chaplin, John Gilbert,Lon Chaney, the Keystone Cops, Theda Bara, Zasu Pitts, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton. His daughter Nina got married, had two sons and divorced. She couldn’t build a lasting, perfect relationship as the one her parents had. And he couldn’t find a vocation stronger than being known by her name for being in the drawing of the most admired American caricaturist: the artist of the celebrities. Hirschfeld’s drawing seem to had been drawn quickly and with a loose hand , all of a sudden , nut it isn’t so. He works on very big papers, in a big desk, passing sketches, drawing carefully in pencil, choosing the better line, erasing the rest, and passing everything again with pen and ink, with a perfect pulse and a careful and thoughtful slow movement. Hirschfeld’s caricatures are shown at the National Portrait Gallery ( Washington), The International Museum of Cartoon Art ( Boca Raton , Florida), The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art ( Sarasota , Florida) and the Whitney Museum of American Art ( New York ), The Smithsonian Institution ( Washington) , The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of the City of New York, The Lincoln Center Library, The Brooklyn Museum, The Fogg Museum of Harvard University, St. Louis Art Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, and many other museums and institutions in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Since 1969, Al Hirschfeld has been represented exclusively by the Margo Feiden Galleries, where more than 70 years of his drawings, etchings, and lithographs are on permanent exhibition.

There are 25 books including his caricatures, amimg them , the following : "Manhattan Oases," Dutton 1932 "Harlem As Seen By Hirschfeld" (with text by William Saroyan), Hyperion, 1941 "Show Business Is No Business," Simon and Schuster, 1951 "American Theatre," George Braziller, 1961 "The World Of Hirschfeld," Harry Abrams, 1970 "The Lively Years" (with Brooke Atkinson), Associated Press, 1973 "The Entertainers," Elm Tree Press, 1977 "Hirschfeld By Hirschfeld," Dodd Mead, 1979 "Hirschfeld’s World," Harry Abrams, 1981 "Hirschfeld: Art & Recollections From Eight Decades," Scribner’s, 1991

( Article by Ana von Rebeur - Biography made with data taken from biographic notes by Margo Feiden -www.hirschfeld.com-, from a documentary of cable channel People & Arts, and from www.lambiek.com , cartoon enciclopaedia)