Philip Burke

Last updated
Philip Burke
Born1956 (age 67–68)
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Education University of Toronto
Known forcaricature portraits, illustrations
Notable work Andy Warhol
Rolling Stone covers (1989–1996)

Philip Burke (born 1956 in Buffalo, New York) [1] [2] is an American caricature artist and illustrator, known for his vivid portraits [3] that appeared in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine for almost a decade. Burke's work extends beyond the likes of contemporary musicians; often serving as a chronicle of the political and social undercurrent on the pages of Vanity Fair, [4] Time, Vogue or The New Yorker and others.

Contents

Life

Burke was born in Buffalo, New York in 1956. He was brought up in a strict Catholic home and was baptized by his great uncle Buffalo Bishop Burke [5] His first dabbling with caricatures date back to 1971, while a high school sophomore. Philip left Buffalo for the University of Toronto in 1974 where he drew caricatures for the university newspaper during his time there. Although he lost interest in academics, he packed up his portfolio and headed for New York City to pursue a career as an illustrator. Living in the West Village, he began drawing pen and ink caricatures for the Village Voice and various other publications. In 1982 Burke was shifting gears and began painting with oils. He signed an exclusive contract with the newly formed Vanity Fair [4] magazine. A year later, Burke returned to his hometown, Buffalo, New York where he got married and started a family.

Work

Andy Warhol became a fan of Burke's art after seeing his illustrations inVanity Fair. Burke bumped into Warhol on a New York street and the two became friends. After a year Burke got up enough courage to ask Warhol if he could paint him, and he agreed. [6]

By 1989 Burke's paintings of contemporary musicians began being featured on the pages of Rolling Stone magazine. Every 2 weeks the table of contents would showcase a Philip Burke interpretation of the person behind the music.

In the late 1990s, Burke's work would appear on the covers of Time magazine, and continues to be published in The New Yorker, Vanity fair and GQ.

When Tina Brown became editor of The New Yorker , she brought in Burke to work for her. Patricia Bradbury, former Art Director of Newsweek Magazine said "He is just phenomenal, he does the best caricatures I've seen, there is nobody else like him". New York Times art director Steven Heller says "Burke has changed the art form. He uses paint in a way that no other cartoonist I know uses it and in fact breaks from the tradition of caricature. [7]

Burke's work has been exhibited in a partnership with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. [8] The exhibit, The Color of Rock: The Art of Philip Burke, was on view at the Rock Hall from November 2006 to April 2007. The exhibit now travels throughout the United States. His original works, mainly in oil, encompass canvases from 40 inches to 12 feet in length. His subject matter has included rock performers, royalty, newsworthy politicos and entertainers from all over the globe.

His work can also be viewed in the traveling Rock & Roll Hall of Fame exhibit, featured galleries throughout the US and on occasion in a "live painting" where the artist himself embellishes original or limited edition reproductions of his art.

Burke's subjects range from politicos and media personalities, to athletes and musicians. Most notably his recent work featuring prominent players in the 2008 election serve as a historical reference: Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy and John McCain.

Philip Burke is an artist whose work has been selected for shows and exhibits by artist's organizations such as Society of Illustrators, Society of Publication Design and Society of Newspaper Design. Philip's artwork has been highlighted in several books, including The Savage Mirror in 1993 and Rolling Stone; The Illustrated Portraits in 2000.

In 2002, Burke's passion for rock and roll was displayed in an eight-foot guitar on which he depicted Pete Townshend on one side and Shirley Manson on the other. The guitar, which was Rolling Stone's entry into Cleveland's Guitar Mania exhibit, was dubbed "Smash Hit" and displayed upside down, being held by steel arms about to smash it to the floor. The guitar was on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame until it sold at a United Way auction for $30,000.00. There's a lot of rock and roll in Philip Burke and a lot of Philip Burke in rock and roll.

In 2019 a 24 x 48-foot mural depicting Goo Goo Dolls' members John Rzeznik and Robby Takac was painted by Burke. The mural is located at 1212 Hertel Avenue, Buffalo, New York. [9]

On April 1, 2020, Niagara University announced that the Castellani Art Museum had received a donation of Burke's caricature portrait of Henry Kissinger from curator, educator, artist, and collector Gerald C. Mead Jr. [10]

Exhibitions

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rock and Roll Hall of Fame</span> Music museum in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the artists, producers, engineers, and other notable figures and personnel who have influenced its development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herb Ritts</span> American photographer

Herbert Ritts Jr. was an American fashion photographer and director known for his photographs of celebrities, models, and other cultural figures throughout the 1980s and 1990s. His work concentrated on black and white photography and portraits, often in the style of classical Greek sculpture, which emphasized the human shape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al Hirschfeld</span> American caricaturist (1903–2003)

Albert Hirschfeld was an American caricaturist best known for his black and white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars in which he hid the name of his daughter Nina after her birth in 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caricature</span> Simplified or exaggerated artistic image

A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings. Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, and can serve a political purpose, be drawn solely for entertainment, or for a combination of both. Caricatures of politicians are commonly used in newspapers and news magazines as political cartoons, while caricatures of movie stars are often found in entertainment magazines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robby Takac</span> American rock bassist and vocalist

Robert Carl Takac Jr. is an American rock bassist and vocalist. Takac is one of the founding members of the Goo Goo Dolls, along with Johnny Rzeznik.

Alan E. Cober, born in New York City was an American illustrator. His artwork appeared in The New York Times, Life, Time and numerous other publications. Cober was inducted into the Illustration Hall of Fame in 2011, thirteen years after his death in 1998. Cober was frequently cited as one of the most innovative illustrators America has ever produced.

Mark English was an American illustrator and painter, born in Hubbard, Texas. He was one of the United States' leading illustrators for publications in a career spanning from the 1960s to the 1990s, before beginning a career painting for gallery exhibition in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niagara (painter and singer)</span> Musical artist

Niagara, born Lynn Rovner in Detroit, Michigan in 1955, is a painter and musician. She was the lead vocalist of the proto-punk rock bands Destroy All Monsters (DAM) and Dark Carnival. Her painting derives principally from the Lowbrow art movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Levine</span> American caricaturist (1926–2009)

David Levine was an American artist and illustrator best known for his caricatures in The New York Review of Books. Jules Feiffer has called him "the greatest caricaturist of the last half of the 20th Century".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Gruen</span> American author and photographer (born October 23, 1945)

Bob Gruen is an American author and photographer known for his rock and roll photographs. By the mid 1970s, Gruen was already regarded as one of the foremost photographers in music working with major artist such as John Lennon, Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, and Kiss. He also covered emerging new wave and punk rock bands, including the New York Dolls, the Clash, Sex Pistols, Ramones, and Blondie. Gruen has also appeared in films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolf Dehn</span> American artist

Adolf Dehn was an American artist known mainly as a lithographer. Throughout his artistic career, he participated in and helped define some important movements in American art, including regionalism, social realism, and caricature. A two-time recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, he was known for both his technical skills and his high-spirited, droll depictions of human foibles.

Anita E. Kunz, OC, DFA, RCA is a Canadian-born artist and illustrator. She was the first woman and first Canadian to have a solo exhibit at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Dale Threlkeld is an artist who has exhibited his oil paintings in galleries in New York City as well as competitions throughout the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billie Lawless</span> American sculptor (born 1950)

Billie Lawless is an American sculptor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Burckhardt</span> American fine artist and illustrator

Marc Burckhardt is an American fine artist and illustrator. Burckhardt's work focuses on historical symbolism with contemporary themes. He uses a mix of both oil and acrylic paints in a modern variation of the Old Masters techniques of monochromatic underpainting and color glazing, often using wood panels. Burckhardt is additionally known for combining some paintings with pressed metal facades, historically known as rizas or oklads, forming elaborate patterns in the metal to create a jacket-like patterned covering

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Lawrance Lobe</span> American sculptor

Robert Lawrance Lobe is an American sculptor. He was born in Detroit and grew up in Cleveland. He received a B.A. from Oberlin College in 1967 and then pursued post-graduate work at Hunter College.

William Y. Cooper was an American painter, writer, illustrator, muralist, printmaker, and art teacher who spent most of his life in Buffalo, New York. His artwork combines an influence of his African heritage and his personal experience in America. Using symbolism, metaphors, color, and line, Cooper illustrates literal concepts in his works. Jazz music and famous African-American people are prominent themes in his art. He produced a young adult novel and a children's play later in his life, but is known for his numerous decorated murals exhibited within the United States and Ghana. Cooper was recognized in 2013 as a "Living Legacy Artist" by the Burchfield Penney Art Center.

Doreen Garner is an American sculptor and performance artist. Her art practice explores where history, power, and violence meet on the body via beauty or medicine. Garner has exhibited at a number of venues, including New Museum, Abrons Arts Center, Pioneer Works, Socrates Sculpture Park, The National Museum of African American History in Washington, D.C., Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art in Brooklyn, and Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia. Garner holds a monthly podcast called #trashDAY with artist Kenya (Robinson). Garner lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alberto Rey</span> American artist and filmmaker

Alberto Rey is a Cuban-American painter, illustrator, filmmaker, educator and writer. His work has been featured in over 200 exhibitions and screenings and has been included in the permanent collections of twenty museums including Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Brooklyn Museum, the Burchfield Penney Art Center, El Museo del Barrio, Extremaduran and Latin American Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Museum of Latin American Art, and the Peabody Essex Museum. Rey is currently a distinguished professor at the State University of New York at Fredonia and in 2012 was inducted into the Burchfield Penney Art Center's Living Legacy Project. He has written several books corresponding to series of his work: Candaway Creek - Western New York (2021), Lost Beauty: Icebergs (2021), Lost Beauty: Part II - The Art of Museum Stories (2021), Extinct Birds Project (2018), and Complexities of Water - Biological Regionalism: Bagmati River, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal (2016) about the holiest and most polluted river Bagmati River in Kathmandu, Nepal. He has also had many articles and illustrations published in several magazines including the Buffalo Spree, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Art of Angling Journal, Fish and Fly Magazine, American Angler, and Saltwater Fisherman.

Michael A. Friedman is a former music manager and producer, photographer and author.

References

  1. ↑ "Burke Biography". lbmason.com. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Artist Philip Burke". burchfieldpenney.org. Buffalo, NY: Burchfield Penney Art Center at SUNY Buffalo State. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
  3. ↑ Parker, Charley (April 23, 2008). "Philip Burke". linesandcolors.com. Philadelphia, PA: Lines and Colors. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
  4. 1 2 Suplee, Curt (March 1, 1983). "All is Vanity'". The Washington Post. Donald E. Graham. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  5. ↑ Vogel, Charity (March 24, 1990). "ABOUT FACES". The Buffalo News. Murray B. Light. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  6. ↑ Unber, Natasha (March 14, 2011). "The Art of Fame". Patch. Hale Global. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  7. ↑ Herko, Carl (November 21, 1992). "THE MANY FACES OF ARTIST PHILIP BURKE STROKES OF DISTORTED GENIUS". The Buffalo News. The Buffalo News. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
  8. 1 2 "The Color of Rock: The Art of Philip Burke". rockhall.com. Cleveland, OH: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. Archived from the original on 2009-05-04. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
  9. ↑ Dewey, Caitlin (1 June 2019). "Buffalo artist unveils new Goo Goo Dolls mural on Hertel". The Buffalo News. Buffalo, NY. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  10. ↑ McMahon, Lisa (April 1, 2020). "Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University Receives Major Gift from Notes Art Collector and Patron Gerald C. Mead Jr". news.niagara.edu. Niagara Falls, NY: Niagara University . Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  11. ↑ Dabkowski, Colin (8 July 2015). "Philip Burke's illustrations reveal the soul of celebrity". The Buffalo News. Buffalo, NY. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  12. ↑ New Canaan Carriage Barn, Neighbor (19 December 2012). "The Many Faces of Philip Burke". Patch. Hale Global. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
  13. ↑ Chang, Richard (January 23, 2009). "Muzeo showcases the art of rock". The Orange County Register. Ron Hasse. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Philip Burke Interview – Discover World". youtube.com. Archived from the original on 2021-12-19. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
  15. ↑ "Clock Ticking on the Color of Rock: The Art of Philip Burke". clevelandleader.com. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Leader. April 4, 2007. Archived from the original on February 11, 2010. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.