This month SVA honors illustrator Edward Sorel with the exhibition “The Masters Series: Edward Sorel.” Featuring hundreds of drawings, caricatures and illustrations created by the artist, the show is on view from October 7 through November 5, 2011, at the Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, 15th Floor, New York City.
Sorel has delighted magazine readers for decades with his social critiques, political satires and whimsical picture essays. He has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of America’s foremost political satirists,” and has used his pen to lampoon politicians, businessmen, and celebrities ranging from Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and George W. Bush to Leo Tolstoy, Frank Sinatra, Madonna, and even himself.
Over the last four decades, his work has appeared in American Heritage, The Atlantic, Esquire, Fortune, Forbes, GQ, Harper’s, New York magazine, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Time and The Village Voice. Sorel is now most frequently seen in Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, for which he has done 45 covers.
Sorel has also written and illustrated several children’s books, published a collection of caricatures, exhibited his work in several galleries and museums including the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC., and received numerous awards, such as the Augustus St. Gaudens Medal for Professional Achievement granted by The Cooper Union.
In addition to “The Masters Series” exhibition, there will be a reception for the artist on Thursday, October 13, from 6 – 8 pm at Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26 Street, 15th floor. And on Tuesday, October 25 at 7pm, Sorel will discuss his career with artist James McMullan at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street.
To read a recent interview with Sorel conducted by MFA Design Department Co-chair Steven Heller, visit The Atlantic. Below, watch a short documentary about Edward Sorel made by his son, Leo Sorel.
Images: (top) Frank Sinatra Getting Lit, illustration for the cover of Esquire, April, 1966; (bottom) Edgar Degas meets Mary Cassatt, illustration for “First Encounters” series in The Atlantic Monthly, November, 1993.
