- Richard Amsel
Richard Amsel (1947-1985) was an American
illustrator andgraphic designer .Richard Amsel was born in Philadelphia in December, 1947. While a student at the
Philadelphia College of Art , his proposed poster art for theBarbra Streisand musical Hello, Dolly! was selected by20th Century Fox for the film’s campaign after a nationwide artists’ talent search; the artist was only 22 at the time.Amsel quickly found enormous popularity within New York's art scene, and his illustrations soon caught the attention of a young singer/songwriter named
Barry Manilow , who at the time was working with a newly emerging entertainer in cabaret clubs and piano bars. Manilow introduced the two, and it was quickly decided that Amsel should do the cover of her first Atlantic Records album.The artist's cover, for
Bette Midler 's The Divine Miss M, proved to be one of the most ubiquitous of the year, and more album covers and posters soon followed, as well as a series of magazine ads for designerOleg Cassini .More movie posters materialized, and for some of the most important and popular films of the 1970s: The Champ, Chinatown, Julia,
The Last Picture Show , The Last Tycoon,The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean ,McCabe & Mrs. Miller ,The Muppet Movie , Murder on the Orient Express, Nashville, Papillon,The Shootist , andThe Sting among them. (The latter's poster design paid homage to the painting syle ofJ.C. Leyendecker , evoking both his famous "Arrow Collar Man" and beloved Saturday Evening Post covers.)Though brief, Amsel's career was certainly prolific. By the decade's end his movie posters alone matched or exceeded the creative output of many of his contemporaries. His work graced the cover of Time magazine -- a portrait of comedienne
Lily Tomlin , now housed in the permanent collection at theSmithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. In keeping with the magazine's stringent deadlines, Amsel's illustration was created in only two or three days.The key to his success, beyond raw talent, was the unique quality of his work and illustrative style. Amsel could perfectly evoke period nostalgia (his posters for The Sting and westerns such as McCabe & Mrs. Miller come to mind), while also producing something timeless and iconic, perfectly befitting both something old and something new. And however different his approach from one assignment to the other, all would bear his instantly recognizable stamp.
In 1972,
TV Guide commissioned Amsel to do a cover featuring the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, coinciding with a telefilm about their love affair. Thus began Amsel's thirteen year association with the entertainment magazine, resulting in over 40 covers -- a record held to this day. (Not unlike Leyendecker's record for The Saturday Evening Post.)The "Amsel covers", now prized collector's items, feature portraits of such figures as
Mary Tyler Moore ,John Travolta ,Elvis Presley ,Ingrid Bergman ,Johnny Carson ,Tom Selleck ,Nancy Reagan ,Frank Sinatra ,Princess Grace andKatharine Hepburn . Particularly notable issues includeClark Gable andVivian Leigh for Gone with the Wind's television debut, the wedding ofPrince Charles andDiana, Princess of Wales , andRichard Chamberlain for the miniseries Shogun.Yet perhaps the most beloved is Amsel's portrait of
Lucille Ball , done for the magazine's July 6th, 1974 issue honoring the comedienne's retirement from series television. "I did not want the portrait to be of Lucy Ricardo," Amsel explained, "but I didn't want a modern-day Lucy Carter either. I wanted it to have the same timeless sense of glamour that Lucy herself has. She is, after all, a former Goldwyn Girl. I hoped to capture the essence of all this."Amsel's work so impressed Ms. Ball that the artwork was later prominently featured in the opening credits of a two-hour television tribute, CBS Salutes Lucy: The First 25 Years. Years later, representations of Amsel's covers were placed on exhibit at the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills, commemorating TV Guide's fortieth anniversary.
The 1980s marked a dramatic change in movie marketing campaigns, with more and more employing photographs in favor of illustrations. Movie poster artists now faced a narrower field in which to compete, often limited to science fiction, fantasy, and adventure films. The old masters like
Bob Peak -- whose bold, striking campaigns for Camelot, , Superman, andApocalypse Now helped redefine the very nature of movie poster art -- seemed increasingly dated in their style, and had to make way for a new generation of artists (notablyDrew Struzan ).Yet Amsel remained productive, his trademark signature becoming a widely recognizable fixture on further magazine covers and movie posters, including such high profile, "event" films as the colorful, campy Flash Gordon, and the elaborate fantasy
The Dark Crystal . But perhaps his work for the adventure filmRaiders of the Lost Ark remains the artist’s most famous. Amsel did two separate posters, one for the film’s initial 1981 release and another for its re-release a year later;George Lucas andSteven Spielberg reportedly own the originals, respectively.Amsel's output garnered numerous awards, from the New York and Los Angeles Society of Illustrators, a Grammy Award, a Golden Key Award from The Hollywood Reporter, and citations from the Philadelphia Art Director's Club.
His last film poster was for
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome , the third ofGeorge Miller 's apocalyptic action movies withMel Gibson . His final completed artwork was for an issue of TV Guide, featuring news anchorsTom Brokaw ,Peter Jennings andDan Rather .Amsel died less than three weeks later, succumbing to complications from
AIDS on November 17, 1985. When he fell ill, he was to have done the poster for theRomancing the Stone sequel,The Jewel of the Nile .Internal link
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List of TV Guide covers External links
* [http://www.adammcdaniel.com/RichardAmsel.htm McDaniel, Adam: The Art & Artistry of Richard Amsel, biography and tribute]
* [http://www.lucyfan.com/amsel.html Article, with sample works]
* [http://www.superseventies.com/celebrityportraits/cp12_barbrastreisand.jpg]
* [http://www.superseventies.com/celebrityportraits/cp34_lucy.jpg]
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