Editorial Studies, Boris Artzybasheff

Boris Artzybasheff

Boris Artzybasheff was an American illustrator of Russian-Ukrainian origin active in the United States, notable for his strongly worked and often surreal designs. During his lifetime Artzybasheff was probably known best for his magazine art. He illustrated the major American magazines Life, Fortune, and Time including more than 200 TimeMagazine covers. During World War II, he also served an expert advisor to the U.S. Department of State, Psychological Warfare Branch.

His graphic style is striking. In commercial work he explored grotesque experiments in anthropomorphism, where toiling machines displayed distinctly human attributes. In his personal work, he explored the depiction of vivid and extreme ranges of human psychology and emotion.

Figure 1 - TIME cover

Artzybasheff is famously known for his ability to anthropomorphise objects to turn into believable and relatable characters. Here is a camera character for Time Magazine which is relatable and displays clear human characteristics yet with no addition of obvious 'human' features. Other artists such as Sara Fanelli add a human eye as an anchor to engage the audience better in being able to relate to the character. But Artzybasheff using the 'eye' technique but in a more subtle way. His is renowned for turning his machines into human like features which makes them more relatable to the audience. 

Figure 2 - Artzybasheff

Figure 3 - Casco (1946) - Artzybasheff

This methodology has been applied throughout other aspects of his work and his also shown in this 'machine' like character. The eyes are subtle but with the addition of human hands makes the character seem more real to us.

Figure 4 - My own take on anthropormophising a machine.  

Here is my personal take on the anthropomorphism of 'mechanical' objects giving the subtle human characteristics. I wanted to down scale Artzybasheff's mechanical ideas to something of smaller mechanical scale on a more relatable level. I used coloured pencil in order to recreate the type of textures displayed in Figure 1 to try and apply his methodologies further. 

Image reference

- Figure 1 - Boris Artzybasheff (Борис Михайлович Арцыбашев) (1899-1965)

- Figure 2 - Illustrator – Boris Artzybasheff (1899 – 1965) (2012)

- Figure 3 - Boris Artzybasheff (Борис Михайлович Арцыбашев) (1899-1965)

Bibliography

- Boris Artzybasheff (no date) Available at: http://www.americanartarchives.com/artzybasheff.htm (Accessed: 20 October 2016).

- Boris Artzybasheff (Борис Михайлович Арцыбашев) (1899-1965) (2016) Available at: https://www.artexpertswebsite.com/pages/artists/artzybasheff.php (Accessed: 20 October 2016).

- Illustrator – Boris Artzybasheff (1899 – 1965) (2012) Available at: http://www.bloodyloud.com/illustrator-boris-artzybasheff-1899-1965/ (Accessed: 20 October 2016).