Blitt

by Barry Blitt

Overview

"One of the great political cartoonists of our time." —David Remnick

A gorgeous, hilarious, and provocative compendium of the Pulitzer Prize-winning artist’s illustrations for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and more.
 
Barry Blitt’s cartoons have been lampooning American politics and culture for decades. His iconic New Yorker covers are defining images for our times, earning him adoration from critics and fans and piles of hate mail from everyone else.

This lavish full-color collection showcases more than a quarter century of Blitt’s work: his wry and provocative New Yorker covers, from the Obama fist bump heard round the world, to George W. Bush’s drowning cabinet, to the myriad (and counting) misadventures of Donald Trump; Blitt’s long-running collaboration with Frank Rich on The New York Times op-ed page; and his work for Vanity Fair, Time, Entertainment Weekly, and others. Blitt also shares his private sketchbooks, drafts, and uproarious rejected illustrations, offering readers an illuminating view into his creative process.

Featuring the author's hand-scrawled annotations and self-deprecating witticisms, more than one hundred never-before-seen sketches and drafts, and essays from Blitt’s collaborators and peers, including Frank Rich, Françoise Mouly, and Steve Brodner, Blitt is a visual delight and a rollicking trip into the mind of an utterly original artist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399576669
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/24/2017
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Barry Blitt is a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and illustrator. Since 1992, he has contributed illustrations and more than one hundred covers to The New Yorker, including “Deluged,” voted Cover of the Year by the American Society of Magazine Editors in 2006, and “The Politics of Fear,” a finalist for the same award in 2009. Blitt’s work has also appeared in Vanity Fair, Time, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. His work for children includes The 39 Apartments of Ludwig van Beethoven and Once Upon a Time, the End (Asleep in 60 Seconds). Blitt lives in Roxbury, Connecticut.

Editorial Reviews

For nearly a generation now, Barry Blitt has been the sharpest and funniest political artist in the United States.” —David Remnick

“A born wisenheimer... Blitt’s lively gift with turning Washington figures into character studies has helped him become the New Yorker’s preeminent political cover artist—an editorial whiz in deadline watercolor.” —Washington Post

“Blitt’s wry images twist stereotypes and tweak the zeitgeist. They jump from magazine covers headed for the recycling pile to become icons of satire that are welded to our collective memory and to the historical record.” —Matt Wuerker, Politico

“Piercingly funny.” —Fast Company

“By turns fascinating and entertaining... Seeing how this artist turns his ideas into a finished product is one of the most captivating aspects... the beauty of his art is that it rarely needs explaining. You just get it.” —Mother Jones

“Don’t be fooled by the whimsical hand drawn serif of the cover: this work bites. As with the best satirists and commentators, Blitt’s work packs the punch, as demonstrated in these works that straddle more than 25 years.” —AIGA Eye on Design

“Indelible images from one of America's leading political cartoonists. . . . A treasure trove for fans of the New Yorker, political satire, and graphic design.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“A singular artist.” —Frank Rich
 
“Clever, incisive, humorous.” —Women's Wear Daily

“There can be no disputing that Blitt has earned a vaulted place in the pantheon of twenty-first-century political satirists.” —Steven Heller
 
“If Barry Blitt is anything, it’s brilliantly provocative.” —James Rainey, Los Angeles Times

From the Publisher

★ 2017-08-07
Indelible images from one of America's leading political cartoonists.Though he claims that "my comprehension of politics was and remains superficial," Blitt's (The Founding Fathers!, 2016, etc.) magazine covers, especially for the New Yorker, have not only spurred considerable dialogue in the culture at large, but also helped frame the dialogue in American political discourse. There was the image of the Obamas giving each other fist bumps while dressed in terrorist garb; the one with the Monty Python-esque "silly walks" showing Brits walking off the cliff with Brexit; and the flooding of the Bush cabinet in the wake of Hurricane Katrina—not to mention the many involving the 2016 election of Trump in general, who has been the gift that keeps on giving. How does Blitt do it? He does his best to explain, showing his drafting table and sheets covered with inkblots. He offers a "neurotic's diary," the daily routine, and he provides revelatory glimpses of the process, the sketches, and drafts preceding the finished illustration. He also inventories the "tools of the trade"—not only the array of artistic supplies, but a pharmacy's worth of prescribed medications. So here you have everything that goes into a Blitt cartoon, but unless you are Blitt, you will never achieve what he does with those ingredients. He admits that not even he knows how he does what he does or even exactly what a powerful image might mean. But accompanying these illustrations is plenty of testimony on what sets him apart. Frank Rich praises "the spontaneity, grace, and power of Barry's art," which often accompanied the columnist's Sunday pieces for the New York Times. "Paying attention to small details, Blitt manages to make points about big issues," says Francoise Mouly, the New Yorker's art editor. Many of these illustrations remain fresh in memory, though the tossed-off sketches and previously unpublished work are every bit as illuminating. A treasure trove for fans of the New Yorker, political satire, and graphic design.

Kirkus Reviews