January 16–April 10, 2016
Musée Tomi Ungerer –
Centre international de
l’illustration Villa Greiner
2 avenue de la Marseillaise
67000 Strasbourg
France
Hours: Wednesday–Monday 10am–6pm
www.musees.strasbourg.eu
www.hear.fr
Artists: Baptiste Alchourroun, Alexis Beauclair, Fanny Blanc, Guillaume Chauchat, Quentin Duckit, Juliette Etrivert, Marion Fayolle, Caroline Gamon, Lucie Larousse, Antoine Maillard, Bénédicte Muller, Mayumi Otero, Margaux Othats, Eugène Riousse, Marine Rivoal, Simon Roussin and Raphael Urwiller
The exhibition Fit to Print brings together a selection of editorial illustration created by Haute école des arts du rhin (HEAR – Strasbourg, France) graduates, commissioned for The New York Times Opinion section from 2012 to the present. NYT Opinion has a rich history of publishing exceptional illustration since the founding of the OpEd page in 1970, and today commissions around 1500 original artworks per year.
The illustrations here give visual form to pressing news topics—from gun violence and fracking to standardized testing and cancer treatment—and were created under quick deadlines, often with just 6–24 hours from start to finish. The work is visually striking, conceptually strong, and technically refined—all qualities of the best in editorial art. While diverse in style, the illustrations of HEAR graduates are united by a focus on the hand-drawn over the digital, and an often surreal, poetic approach to composition and concept.
Also included in the exhibition are personal pieces by each artist, which provide a rare opportunity to see how their individual artistic sensibilities manifest in commercial work. This show aims to demonstrates the power of editorial illustration not only in its functional role as visual communication, but also as a unique form of fine art.
The large advertising posters that Tomi Ungerer produced for The New York Times in the early 1960s are displayed in the introduction to the exhibition.