History of American Illustration

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Edwin Georgi, “Hoodoo that Voodoo.” American illustrators’ aim has always been to effectively communicate with their audience and deliver the intended messages of their clients. With that being said, evolution of style and technique has been necessary in order to connect with the public. Depending on what is happening within the country politically, economically, and socially, dictates the aesthetic the country is drawn to. Documentary/journalistic illustration became a viable career path for artists in the 1850s through the 1930s. Artists would document and illustrate current events for newspapers and magazines. Photography was invented in the late 19th century, but it wasn’t heavily utilized by newspapers and magazines until the late 1920s because the technology was still in its infancy. Before film and photography were readily implemented into society, illustration was the only means to visually documented the real-world events of the time. Combat artists were hired to create rapid, on-site sketches of the war to visually document history. These images were later fine-tuned and printed in newspapers and magazines to give the American people an idea of what is going on from a first-hand perspective. The most exciting time in American history to be an illustrator was from 1880-1910, The Golden Age of Illustration due to the dramatic expansion of publishing. The Civil War and its aftermath created the need for publishing and illustration, The Golden Age of Illustration began with development of railroads and the widespread implementation of half-tone screens and offset presses. These new techniques allowed illustrations to be photographed and reproduced directly from the art easily and quickly. World War I increased the demand of illustration due to the need of recruitment posters, campaigns, and documentation. Artists of this time were very wealthy and had
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