Boris Artzybasheff, 1938 Caldecott Artist: Where Insight Meets Imagination

(Internet Archive, Lyme Art Association)

Boris Artzybasheff (1899-1965) was born in Russia, where he fought with the White Russian forces during his late teens. Following the Communist victory, Artzybasheff came to the United States in 1919, where he fell into engraving and eventually illustrating after some time laboring in print shops. Although so far, I have not found much about his personal life, I went down a long and beautiful rabbit hole learning about his art.

The Life of Caldecott Artist Boris Artzybasheff

There are quite a few excellent biographies of Artzybasheff floating around the Internet. In addition to the usual Wikipedia page, I would recommend:

This Short Biography by Dominic J. Iacono, Associate Director of the Syracuse University Art Collection for the American Society of Illustrators.
Brian Flon's biography for the Lusher Gallery contains additional details of his time in Russia, fighting with anti-Communist forces, and the circumstances of his decision to stay in the United States.

One interesting fact that pops up here and there about Artzybasheff is that he worked as a consultant for the Psychological Warfare Branch of the U.S. State Department during WWII. Although I have not see any more information about that in my research, I found the following document form the Ike Skelton Combined Arms Research Digital Library that provides a lot of insight into what that type of work entailed.

Artzybasheff's first and only Caldecott honor was in 1938, the ALA was already familiar with his work through the 1928 novel Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon, for which Dhan Gopal Mukerji received a Newbery.

Beyond the Caldecott: The Art of Artzybasheff

Although I love the artwork in Seven Simeons, the book is just a sliver of Artzybasheff's amazing talent. He illustrated more than 50 books and book covers, but he was probably even more renowned for his commercial art, most often for powerhouse magazines such as Time and Fortune, as well as for industrial giants of the day such as ALCOA, Shell, and AVCO. If that doesn't sound very creative to you, think again. His portraits and cover art for Time are compelling even now -- and if you're not familiar with the subject, believe me, you will be Googling names to get the full story behind the picture. Little wonder that many of his works are hanging in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. In fact, the teacher in me would LOVE to create a history lesson where students pick a favorite image of his to study, use the portrait alone to make inferences about the subject, and then do research to confirm or refute their interpretation.

Also included in his body of work are a series of artworks depicting anthropomorphic machines, anti-Axis images during WWII, life in modern society, and mental illnesses. Several of these have relevance even today, and almost all of them present an incisive perspective on their subjects.

The collage below provides a peek into the diversity of his work. What strikes me most, I think, is that the artwork for Seven Simeons, which appears in the center, is so unusual among what preceded and followed it, although an artist may see more similarities than I do:

In fact, although I wouldn't dare to say that I have seen all of Artzybasheff's output, the closest stylistic samples that I have come across are from 1925's The Forge in the Forest and 1929's Three and the Moon. Even so, Seven Simeons still seems to have be created with a much lighter hand:

In any event, the treatment of the tale in Seven Simeons is certainly much lighter than that of Poor Shaydullah, Artzybasheff's story about a hapless poor man in "the city of Marrakech" who "people from the four corners of the earth passed by . . . in endless succession." Unlike many "tales of the poor ____," Artzybasheff's title character is much darker, insulting those who do not give alms and rejecting well-meaning suggestions to work, trade, or even steal to better his lot. Instead, he embarks of a journey to ask Allah himself "why my share has not been given unto me." On his way, he meets three creatures as miserable as he is: a lion, a banana tree, and a giant fish -- all of whom give him what they can in spite of their pains, with the hope that he will pleas with Allah on their behalf. He finally meets Allah and hears his message: "'A share of my blessings is given . .not unto him who has the strength to take it, yet folds his hands and reclines upon the lap of idleness . . . And if there be aught which pleaseth me, there is but to say, BE and IT IS.'" (Quote taken from Poor Shaydullah, last page.)

However, Shaydullah is so consumed with the idea that he is due riches without any effort that he does not apply any of the wisdom to himself. Instead, he hurries back to his home, which he expects will be laden with riches and servants, barely stopping long enough to offer advice to his friends. In so doing, he passes up a diamond and a chest full of gold, only to be eaten by the lion. The book ends with a quote from the Quran: "And so doth Allah mislead whom He will, and whome He will doth he guide aright: and none knoweth the armies of thy Lord but Himself: and this is no other than a warning to mankind" (SURA LXXIV). The pictures, sampled below, reflect this tone despite some of the humor they also try to depict:

In terms of the pictures, the darkness is particularly evident in the appearance of Allah toward the end of the book. In the collage above, the picture in the lower left corner shows a detail from the cloud surrounding Allah as he talks to Shaydullah. Whether this darkness is due to the fact that Shaydullah is evidently conceived more as a cautionary tales than a fairy tale -- or due to more deep-seated prejudices and stereotypes -- I lack the research to argue. (Suffice it to say, I doubt for many reasons that Shaydullah would make it onto many bookshelves today given its character depictions.) Nevertheless, in terms of style, it seems to fit in more with Artzybasheff's larger body of work than his Caldecott-winning book.

Until I find a better explanation for Seven Simeons's singularity, I am going to stick with a possible reason that I found in this description offered by Cattermole 20th Century Children’s Books: “The book won every graphics prize at the time. The author, when asked if the illustrations were suitable for children, denied that they were illustrations at all, but the realization of a dream.” No idea where they got this information, but it fits with my observation.

More Artzybasheff to Explore

If you want to see any of the snips above in more detail -- or if you just want to have your mind blown away by Artzybasheff's creativity and output, check out my fellow Blogger's 12-Part Series on Boris Artzbasheff by "Art & Artists". Here, you'll find another short biography along with copious examples of his work. I have catalogued them below in case there is a particular work or style that interests you. Keep in mind that some of the portrait or ad lists may not be complete, and in some cases I have added my own notes, so when in doubt, just click and discover!

Part 1

• Fortune ("Japan in Asia") and Time (Ho Ch Minh) magazine covers; 1941 Imperturbable Tank Attack
• Cover for his 1954 book As I See
• Book illustrations: The Undertaker's Garland by John Peale Bishop; Verotchka's Tales by Mamin Siberiak; Creatures by Colum Padraic; The Wonder Smith and His Son by Ella Young

Part 2

• The Forge in the Forest by Padraic Colum
• Funnybone Alley by Alfred Kreymborg

Part 3

• Book illustrations, including the Newbery-winning Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji, as well as Orpheus, Myths of the World by Padraic Colum; Three and the Moon: Legendary Stories of Old Brittany, Normandy & Provence by Jacques Dorey; Aesop's Fables
• Golden Book Magazine covers

Part 4

• 1932-1954c Machinalia. (I especially like the "Executive," "Hydraulic Press," "Making Steel," "One Lump, Please," and "Weaving Fence.")
• 1934-1954 "Neurotica," a collection surrealistic depictions of mental illnesses and their associated symptoms, including addiction, alcoholism, hypochondria, and repressed hostility.

Part 5

• 1940s WWII art and ads.
• The anti-fascist illustrations are particularly notable, especially "Swastikas," which turns the Nazi symbol into a series of ghouls. Also take a look at "Economic Mobilisation" for Fortune in 1941; you may never see a graph the same way again.
• "The Last Trumpet" wood engraving.
• Book illustrations: The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney; Seven Simeons: A Russian Tale (his own Caldecott-honored book).

Part 6

• Artwork for Time and Fortune, including Alexander Vasilevsky, Heinrich Himmler, Admiral Mineichi Koga, Karl Doenitz, Elmer Davis, Turkish Premier Sukru Saracoglu, Harold George, Admiral Nagano, Field Marshall Feder-von-Bok, Marshall Timoshenko, Dimitri Shostakovich, Admiral Ernest J. King
•  The portrait of Stalin as the 1943 Time "Man of the Year" stood out most to me, as did the portrait of Nagano.

•  I also enjoyed the fairly whimsical "Corn Kernel," which shows all the places and products in which different parts of the little nugget appear.

• A series of ads for drinking cups and Parker Pens

• Cover art for Tree of Life

Part 7

• "Axis in Agony" caricature series
• Time covers, including WWII military figures and politicians, Marian Anderson, Sinclair Lewis, Eugene O'Neil, Billy Rose, Marlin Perkins, and historian Arnold J. Toynbee.

Part 8

• A series of ads for "Alcoa sails the Caribbean"
• Time cover portraits, including Chen Lifu, C.S. Lewis, U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman David Lilienthal, David Ben-Gurion, Edwin Hubble, George Gallup, J. Edgar Hoover, Cornelius P. Rhoads, Louis Armstrong, Hubert Humphrey, Charles Erwin Wilson, Pan Am's Juan Trippe, India's PM Jawaharlal Nehru, Mao Tse Tung, Frank Stanton and K.C. Wu
• Cover art for Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister
• A cute-but-scary Time cover of Coca-Cola nursing the world

Part 9

• More Time cover art and portraits, including interesting portrayals of The Pentagon, U.S. Commerce Secretary Charles Sawyer, T.S. Eliot, the "Space Pioneer," "The Executive of the Future," Charles Edward Wilson, Kurt Schumacher, and Lt. General Vasily Stalin
• A series of artwork for Shell Oil and Lycoming, as well as an intricate 1951 work entitled "The GM System of Floriculture"

Part 10

• Ad and artwork for Shell Oil, as well as machinalia.
• A very intricate artwork "Gods and Demons" for Life.
• More Time cover art and portraits, including Jonas Salk, Haitian President Paul E. Magloire, Dave Brubeck (another personal favorite), Roy Campanella, toymaker Louis Marx, Marshall Georgy Zhukov, Ed Sullivan, NY Superintendent of Schools William Jansen, Stalin, Allen W. Dulles, Sound-barrier-busting Test Pilot Bridgeman, and an "Amateur Photographer."

Part 11

• Several Time cover art and portraits, many of which you can see at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery: Carl Jung, Nikita Khrushchev, World Bank President Black, French politician Pierre Poujade, "The Missile," a self-portrait, "The U.S. Repairman," "The Telephone Man," "Space Exploration: U.S. vs. Russia," LBJ, "U.S. Commuters" (still so true today) and Jacques Cousteau (personal favorite).
• Also "1960's New Products" and "Fabled Voyages, Bizarre Findings, and Lunar Fiction.

Part 12 

• Several Time cover art and portraits, some of which are featured at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, including: The Berlin Wall (personal favorite), John Glenn, Lady Bird Johnson, "Red China," Ho Chi Minh, Lee Harvey Oswald, D. Brainerd Holmes, Walter Ulbricht, C. Douglas Dillion, Brezhnev, R. Buckminster Fuller, Kong Le, "New Products," and "The Computer in Society"
• Art for Der Spiegel ("German Automation")
• Fortune ("U.S. Public Health Service")
• Overseas Press Club of America, and AVCO
• "1961 Leisure Camping"
• A 1951 Christmas card that shows how impending taxes were ruining the holiday spirit for the Artzybasheffs
• The undated "Skeleton Hand and Skull Silhouette"
  

Reflections on Caldecott Artist Boris Artzybasheff

As expansive as the above collection is, there is even more to see, and in spite of its stylistic diversity, one message comes through loud and clear: No matter what the subject, Artzybasheff had a lot to say about it. Every line, in fact, seems not just to tell a story but to transmit the sentiments of the artist, which can even include conflicting emotions such as fascination and disgust -- inspiring those same feelings in the viewer. 

While this quality alone would be enough of a legacy, Artzybasheff's place in both the literary and commercial worlds put him in a unique position to inspire imaginations as well as to preserve one of the most turbulent periods of world history for ages to come.

For more, see:  

• Seven Simeons, 1938 Caldecott Honor: A Tale for All Ages? 
• Seven Simeons: Caldecott & Book Collector Notes