This retrospective exhibition showcases more than forty original drawings, watercolors, and giclée prints by celebrated designer, illustrator, and pictorial theorist Milton Glaser. The works on view represent more than a half a century of Glaser's contribution to the history and development of design and illustration in America.

Central to this exhibition are Glaser's original and re-imagined portraits of literary and historical personages. Among those featured are James Joyce, Francis Bacon, George Gershwin, and William Shakespeare. Inspired in part by Glaser's recent publication Drawing is Thinking, the exhibition addresses the mechanical aspects of the creative process, and the role of the action of design in the construction of narrative. In Milton's book the viewer/reader is invited to meditate upon the transformative capacity of the act of drawing, and to question expectations about the creation, perception, and experience of images. The works are presented in a deliberately ambiguous sequence of formal and aesthetic juxtapositions, creating a series of parallel narratives illustrating the transformative process of design.

2010 has already been an eventful year for Glaser. In February, President Obama presented Glaser with the 2009 National Medal of the Arts, the country's highest civilian arts award," for a lifetime devoted to improving the way people communicate through innovation in graphic design, and for memorable visual artifacts that challenge contemporary artists and delight all Americans." Glaser's work as an artist, designer, illustrator, educator, and author, as well as his outstanding commitment to the growth and vitality of the visual arts have lead him to become the first graphic artist to ever win this prestigious award.

Glaser's other recent accomplishments include three book jackets for author and friend Philip Roth, and the installation of an 18-ft tall kinetic sculpture, inspired by Tatlin's designs for Homage to the Third Republic, above the marquee for the School of Visual Arts.

Exhibition Information

James Cummins Bookseller is pleased to showcase "Milton Glaser: Artists and Writers. Drawings, Prints, and Watercolors" in our shop at 699 Madison Avenue (between 62nd and 63rd Streets), 7th floor. The exhibition runs from March 31st to April 24th.
RSVP to office@jamescumminsbookseller.com or call 212.688.6441