Still a blast
Graphic design artist Chwast turns complex issues into creative artwork
By Will Fawley, contributing writer
Posted on September 14, 2006

When I walked into the Sawhill Gallery to check out the Seymour Chwast exhibit, Still A Blast, I didn’t know what to expect. I was greeted by what seemed to be friendly, colorful cartoons. At first glance, graphic design artist Seymour Chwast’s simplistic lines and bold colors seem like a blast from the past. The icon of illustration and design’s most common subject matter is that of daily objects, such as combs, toothbrushes and hats. Cartoon faces smile out from magazine covers, advertisements and paintings that the artist has designed over the course of his career.

The mundane quality of a good deal of Chwast’s subject matter is another aspect of his art that leads you to dismiss it as being overly simplistic. The artist comments on his choice of subject matter in an excerpt from The Nose magazine No. 7, “Enough with the presidents, movie stars and medical discoveries, it’s time for stamps that commemorate those unsung heroic aspects of our daily lives. And it’s a bargain at any price.” He applies this philosophy to his art.

Upon closer inspection, it is obvious that these cartoons are actually simplistic representations of complex ideas and serious issues. There is also a quirky humor to be found in many of these images. An example of this is a picture that, from across the gallery, looks like an innocent picture of Uncle Sam. Up close it becomes apparent that a war scene is being acted out in his mouth. Planes fly overhead, bombing the unsuspecting houses below. However, the title of this work is the punch line. The plaque beside the picture reads: End Bad Breath.

This is not exactly the kind of art that you want to hang on your living room wall. Nor is it the kind of art that inspires you with its beauty, or makes you feel good. This is the kind of art that challenges you to look beyond the surface and explore the context and connotations associated with the objects and images presented in each composition. Chwast’s designs are much more complicated than the easy lines and bold colors he uses in his artwork.

“I was one of the lucky ones. My first job, just weeks after I graduated from Cooper Union in New York in 1951, was as junior designer in the promotion department of the New York Times,” Chwast said in the introduction of his book, “The Push Pin Graphic: A Quarter Century of Innovative Design and Illustration.”

Push Pin Studios was a group of graphic design artists, including Seymour Chwast, who collaborated to create a collection of freelance design for mailing. In 1957, Push Pin Studios created the Monthly Graphic, a magazine to publish the works of freelance design artists on a regular basis. The publication later came to be known as Push Pin Graphic, to further associate itself with Push Pin Studios. Eighty-six issues of the publication were printed between 1957 and 1980. And in 1976, Chwast became the magazine’s art director.

The artist’s works range from paintings and magazines to children’s books and woodprints. “The Hat” is a book composed of one long piece of paper folded like an accordion. It is a timeline of hats ranging from 2000 B.C. to 2000 A.D. Each page is a woodprint of a man or woman from a particular era, wearing a hat characteristic to that time period. The first print is of a man wearing an ancient headdress, and the last is a man wearing a baseball cap, talking on a cell phone.

The piece as a whole is not as much about what the people are wearing on their heads, but what is going on inside their heads.
Check the exhibit out for yourself Monday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. or on Saturday and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. It will be on display in the Sawhill Gallery, located in Duke Hall, from Sept. 11 to Oct. 21. Also, the artist will present a lecture Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. in Duke 107 with a reception afterwards.