Thursday, June 18, 2009

Illustrative Portraits

Richard Amsel was a fabulous illustrative portraitist back in the 70s/80s.  He had a distinctive style in his mature years, and it was sad to lose him so early. These are but a few of his many wonderful pop portrayals.





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9 comments:

joe ackerman said...

those are really cool, Thomas. I've never seen his work before. the Streisand one's lovely.

June 18, 2009 at 3:14 PM
Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Amsel did a lot of TV Guide covers, that sort of thing. But also some great movie posters. I believe he did a memorable poster of Mad Max, the one with Tina Turner (I'm just going on memory here), with a great portrait of Mel Gibson and a line of 'lost boys' off in the distance.

June 18, 2009 at 4:48 PM
Joe Jusko said...

Amsel was absolutely brilliant and I have great memories of looking for his work on each issue of TV Guide and being so disappointed when someone else was on the cover. I've been looking for the Cheryl Ladd as Grace Kelly original for years.

June 19, 2009 at 5:06 AM
Jack R said...

I'd forgotten about Amsel but his work was so distinctive that it brings back a lot of memories. Love how you used the Bergey illo in your header.
Jack

June 19, 2009 at 12:39 PM
Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Thanks Jack. Good to hear from you. That Bergey just sings to me.

June 19, 2009 at 2:20 PM
Jack R said...

I've been in contact with Bergey's grandson about a couple of projects which I hope may eventually turn into an article for Illustration magazine.
Jack

June 19, 2009 at 6:48 PM
Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Wow, that'd be great. That's so cool that you're out there tracking down history. Have you considered doing another blog on that whole general era of pulp illustration?

June 19, 2009 at 7:00 PM
Anonymous said...

Wow! Where did you get these wonderful images???

I run www.richardamsel.info, and would love to include these on the site. I'll happily credit you, of course.

April 13, 2012 at 9:47 AM
Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Well, you certainly don't need my blessing, but you have it anyway. You have a really nice site, and I appreciate any credit you might want to give.

That's quite a moniker you have there.

April 13, 2012 at 12:08 PM

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