Boris Artzybasheff

Boris Artzybasheff (1899 – 1965) was an American illustrator active in the United States, notable for his strongly worked and often surreal designs. Artzybasheff was probably known best for his magazine art. He illustrated the major American magazines Life, Fortune, and Time (including more than 200 Time Magazine covers over a 24-year span between 1941 and 1965.) He drew a series of surreal anti-nazi illustrations. During World War II, he also served an expert advisor to the U.S. Department of State, Psychological Warfare Branch. After 1940, he devoted himself to commercial art, including advertisements for Xerox, Shell Oil, Pan Am, etc. 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.