Milton Glaser is dead at 91. His life and work are exhilarating.
Nearly six million posters featuring Mr. Glaser’s psychedelic Bob Dylan design made their way into homes across the world. Credit… Milton Glaser.
For the Dylan poster, a promotional piece included in the 1967 album “Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits,” he created a simple outline of the singer’s head, based on a black-and-white self-portrait silhouette by Marcel Duchamp, and added thick, wavy bands of color for the hair, forms he imported from Islamic art.
Mr. Glaser designed more than 400 posters in his career, including this one for the prize-winning play “Angels in America.” Credit… Milton Glaser.
… [Glaser] studied etching with the still-life painter Giorgio Morandi and, in the time-honored way, drew from plaster casts. The experience left him a fervent believer in the discipline of drawing and an enemy of found images and collage in design work.
“A designer who must rely on cutouts and rearranging to create effects, who cannot achieve the specific image or idea he wants by drawing, is in trouble,” he told the magazine Graphis in 1960.
(William Grimes, “Milton Glaser, Master Designer of ‘I ♥ NY’ Logo, Is Dead at 91,” NYTimes, 6-26-20)
I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day, and watch Netflix and Prime Video for entertainment. I like to read and memorize poetry.
The Islamic Influence on Dylan’s Hair
Milton Glaser is dead at 91. His life and work are exhilarating.
For the Dylan poster, a promotional piece included in the 1967 album “Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits,” he created a simple outline of the singer’s head, based on a black-and-white self-portrait silhouette by Marcel Duchamp, and added thick, wavy bands of color for the hair, forms he imported from Islamic art.
… [Glaser] studied etching with the still-life painter Giorgio Morandi and, in the time-honored way, drew from plaster casts. The experience left him a fervent believer in the discipline of drawing and an enemy of found images and collage in design work.
“A designer who must rely on cutouts and rearranging to create effects, who cannot achieve the specific image or idea he wants by drawing, is in trouble,” he told the magazine Graphis in 1960.
(William Grimes, “Milton Glaser, Master Designer of ‘I ♥ NY’ Logo, Is Dead at 91,” NYTimes, 6-26-20)
(c) 2020 JMN
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About JMN
I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day, and watch Netflix and Prime Video for entertainment. I like to read and memorize poetry.