This piece was commissioned by the legendary art director Henry Wolf for the December 1963 issue of SHOW Magazine. SHOW Magazine, the brain child of Huntington Hartford, heir to the A&P Supermarket fortune, billed itself as The Magazine Of The Arts.
November 19, 2010
Click on the image for the Illustration Art blog website and read an interview with R.O. Blechman.
In Germany during the early 1920s rampant inflation wreaked havoc on the economy (an American dollar—worth 330 marks in 1921—skyrocketed in 1923 to 4,200,000,000,000 marks… at its zenith, an American dollar was worth 99,000,000,000,000). In an attempt to replace or supplement the increasingly valueless German currency, cities took to printing their own money—notgeld, or emergency money (literally “necessity moneyâ€). Notgeld was usually printed as paper banknotes and was usable only in the municipality where it was issued. Read R.O. Blechman’s article, Order, Disorder and Notgeld on the AIGA blog and have have a look at some of his collection.
A scatological illustration on notgeld from the town of Itzehoe in Holstein.
May 3, 2010
R.O. Blechman recently completed a commission for Metro Hort Group, an association of horticulture professionals practicing in the New York City and tri-state area. See the animation here.
February 8, 2010