Some of My Favorite Artists are Illustrators

Ludwig Bemelmans

Illustration is — wrongly — treated as the bastard child of the art world. This is less the case than in the past, but purists frequently dismiss illustrators as sell-outs merely after money. These naysayers dismiss illustration as advertising, but I say “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” The late, great Glenn O’Brien thought advertising was like art, anyway (indeed, it was the title of his Artforum columns from the 1980s, published in a book of the same name shortly before he passed earlier this year), and the best illustrators create art that rivals the modern masters.

When talking about illustrators, there’s no better starting place than Ludwig Bemelmans, who wrote the Madeline children’s books. These books — and his fabulous murals at the eponymous Bemelmans Bar — have cemented his spot among the illustrating legends. If you can find a Bemelmans drawing, snatch it up — they’re hard to come by. If they’re too expensive for you, grab a classic New Yorker featuring his cover art. Without Bemelmans, we wouldn’t have the strange art of Julian Schnabel, whose moody, earth-toned scenes evoke an abstracted version of Bemelmans’ backgrounds.

The best-known modern illustrator is Jean-Philippe Delhomme. Would anyone peg Delhomme as a second-rate artist? I don’t think so. Delhomme was the longtime illustrator of O’Brien’s Style Guy column in GQ, and he’s been commissioned by the likes of Barney’s, The Mark Hotel and Sleepy Jones, for advertisements and product designs. Delhomme is one of my favorite artists, period, and if I could have a wall full of his quirky, sophisticated character drawings, I might be the happiest man in the world.

Maira Kalman

While we’re on the topic of living legends, we can’t forget Maira Kalman. My aunt bought me her picture books about Max the poet-dog — a bohemian art world hound  — as a young child, but it wasn’t until college that I realized her main claims to fame were her numerous covers for the New Yorker. My early familiarity with Kalman’s illustrations informed my current appreciation for the medium, and this seems to be the case for artists my age and older. Elements of Kalman’s simple yet expressive figures and scenes have made their way into the delicate brushstrokes of landscape artists like Cynthia Daignault and Daniel Heidkamp, and with the increased recognition and representation of female artists in gallery shows and museum exhibitions, she’s due for a renaissance of her own.

Tomi Um

There are new illustrators waiting for their due as well, like Tomi Um. The Brooklyn-based Um has lent her talents to The New York Times and Monocle, but it’s her whimsical Casper advertisements that have made many a subway ride more enjoyable. They feature a mix of people and anthropomorphized animals going about everyday life in a manner that seems completely plausible. Rendered in blue and white, Um’s scenes are vivid enough without color (though they pop off the page when she fills in empty spaces) and are complex and entertaining enough to put down your phone and ponder over during a subway delay.

Fei Wang

My favorite illustrator of the new guard is Fei Wang, who draws the Instagram menswear series Mr. Slowboy. Wang’s cartoons of classic outfits and fashion industry personalities earned him collaborations with top men’s clothing companies and publications (including Drake’s). Wang’s work is the natural progression of the Japanese illustrators from the 1960s who depicted natty gents wearing Ivy-inspired clothing, and the recognizable figures make it digestible for the Instagram-era audience. As a former creative director, Wang knows how to use the platform as a marketing tool, and his drawings show why today’s best art is commercial.