Henry Wolf, Graphic Designer and Photographer
deb...@comcast.net
By STEVEN HELLER
Published: February 16, 2005
Henry Wolf, the graphic designer and photographer who, as art director
of Esquire, Harper's Bazaar and Show magazines in the 1950's and 60's,
held sway over American periodical design, died on Monday at his
apartment in Manhattan. He was 80.
He was found dead by his assistant, though the cause of death has not
yet been determined, said a friend, the designer Ivan Chermayeff.
Few magazine art directors at the time wielded more creative control
than Mr. Wolf, who was known for his bold yet simple use of expressive
typography, surreal photography and conceptual illustration. Rather
than accept the typical role of an acquiescent layout artist, he
closely collaborated with editors to define their magazines'
personalities. He selected typefaces; commissioned pictorial features
from well-known or newly discovered photographers and illustrators; and
decided what to feature on covers.
"Henry had an intuitive but acute intelligence," said his former
assistant at Esquire, the film director Robert Benton. "You could see
the thought in his layouts. Anything that didn't have meaning was cut
out."
Mr. Wolf was often outspoken on the state of magazines in general, and
quick to note that good content was neutralized when editorial material
and design were not in sync. "An enlightened despot would be a big help
in publishing," he said in a speech titled "What's Wrong With
Magazines," published in Print magazine in 1965. He insisted, "A
magazine should not only reflect a trend; it should help start it."
Mr. Wolf joined the advertising agency McCann Erikson's Center for
Advanced Practice in 1965 and later become creative director of
Trahey/Wolf Advertising. By 1971, after determining that there were no
more magazines for him to design, Mr. Wolf devoted himself to
advertising and editorial photography and opened Henry Wolf
Productions. He photographed elegant fashion layouts and still lifes,
often at his studio in a converted Upper East Side carriage house, for
clients like Saks Fifth Avenue and I. Magnin, as well as advertisements
for Xerox, I.B.M., Revlon and DeBeers.
Mr. Wolf taught magazine design and photography at the School of Visual
Arts, Cooper Union and the Parsons School of Design. He received the
American Institute of Graphic Arts Medal for Lifetime Achievement in
1976 and was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1980.
He is survived by his sister, Joan Slawson. His marriages to Renate
Elias and Macha Meril ended in divorce.
Mr. Wolf was born in Vienna on May 23, 1925, and moved to Paris as a
teenager to study art. In 1941 he immigrated to the United States and
took classes at New York City's School of Industrial Arts. He also
worked in type and printing shops. He joined the Army in 1943 and
served with an intelligence unit in the Pacific until 1946, when he
took a job in a commercial art studio. On the side, he studied design
and photography, with the legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch, and
painting, with Stuart Davis.
In 1951 he became an art director for the State Department, designing
publications and posters for overseas use. The next year he took a job
in Esquire's promotion art department as a junior art director.
Five months later, in a move that surprised his peers and himself, he
was promoted to Esquire's graphics editor. At 26, he was one of the
youngest design stewards at any national magazine. Arnold Gingrich, the
magazine's founding editor, had recently returned after a temporary
retirement, during which Esquire had become ostensibly a girlie
magazine, with some mediocre fiction and fashion coverage, and an
overall layout full of novelty lettering and sentimental illustration.
Gingrich sought to cure its most superficial ills with a bright new
talent. Shortly after that, Mr. Wolf was named art director.
Mr. Wolf took two years to refashion the magazine into exactly what he
wanted. He introduced witty photographic covers (some of which he shot
himself) that cleverly hid the magazine's famous trademark, a mustached
gentleman named Esky; elegant interior typography; and a stable of
modern artists, including Ben Shahn and Richard Lindner. "Still," he
lamented in his soft Viennese accent, "I couldn't get rid of the girlie
gatefold for some time because Gingrich didn't want to lose that part
of his audience." However, he was given as many as eight pages in each
issue to present whatever he wanted, including visual essays on auto
racing and jazz.
In 1958 Mr. Wolf succeeded Alexey Brodovitch at Harper's Bazaar. In
1961 he became art director of a progressive new arts magazine, Show,
where his covers were noteworthy for their pictorial wit and elegance.
His Valentine's Day cover in 1963, for example, was a high-contrast
photograph of a naked woman with an X-ray machine over her breast,
revealing a graphic red heart.
Hyfler/Rosner
<deb...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1108533575....@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Henry Wolf, Graphic Designer and Photographer, Dies at 80
> By STEVEN HELLER
>
> Published: February 16, 2005
I actually knew about this yesterday, as he was a friend of
a friend. Is this from the NY Times?