Illustration: Artzybasheff's Neurotica

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 6 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about golden age illustration.


Naught so sweet as Melancholy
One of the key concepts that an animator deals with every day is anthropomorphism... In most cases, this is applied to animals or teapots, but this aspect of caricature has barely been explored in mainstream animated films. Boris Artzybasheff was a master of anthropomorphism. He was able to give life and personality not only to animals and objects, but to ideas.

Artzybasheff had a long career as an illustrator, beginning in the late 1920s with art deco style illustrations for books like Creatures, extending all the way through the 1950s. His most notable achievements are his cover illustrations for Time magazine, depicting a wide range of contemporary people in the news; and also his arresting images for magazine ads promoting Shell Oil, Xerox and Parker Pens.

ASIFA-Hollywood is lucky to have a friend like Mike Fontanelli. His library of books on cartooning is one of the best in the country. Mike has agreed to share his collection with ASIFA-Hollywood's Archive. The first book he selected to loan us to be digitized is one of the rarest books in his collection... Artzybasheff's "As I See". The first section of this book is titled "Neurotica" and it is a visual depiction of extreme states of mind.






Anxiety


Frustration


Timidity


Repressed Hostility


Indecision


Infantalism


Paranoia


Schizophrenia


Inferiority


So pure, and so relaxing


Hypochondria


Manic-Depressive

For more amazing images from "As I See", see Artzybasheff's Machinalia and Diablerie

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

04.25.08
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