… in response to neo-Nazi and white supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville VA. Yesterday’s posting “Two cartoonists take on Charlottesville” had a striking Jon Berkeley cover for the Economist. Now: a David Plunkert cover “Blowhard” for the New Yorker (alluding, like Berkeley’s cover, to a KKK hood) and an Edel Rodriguez cover for Time (alluding to the Nazi salute).
(#1) Plunkert: “[READACTED]’s weak pushback to hate groups – as if he was trying not to alienate them as voters – compelled me to take up my pen”
(#2) 8/28/17 cover: the Hitlergruß wrapped in the American flag
#1 is Plunkert’s first New Yorker cover. From Wikipedia:
(#3) “ATM skimmers” for PC World; “How we became a nation of haters” for Playboy
David Plunkert is an American illustrator and graphic designer based in Baltimore, Maryland. He is best known for his editorial illustrations and theater posters. His illustrations are highly conceptual, in two styles, Dada influenced collage and spare blocky graphics.
From a 2014 designboom interview (note: the site is heavily into lower-casing):
DB: please could you tell us briefly about your background?
DP: I originally wanted to be a cartoonist but ended up studying design at shepherd college (now shepherd university) in west virginia. there wasn’t an illustration program there but the design program stressed conceptual problem solving using illustration combined with typography. after I graduated I worked as a graphic designer at a now defunct baltimore design firm for about five years before I started freelancing as a graphic designer and illustrator. around 1995 my wife joyce hesselberth and I started spur design and that’s where I’ve been ever since. we purchased and renovated a 10,000 square foot warehouse in baltimore that is now our studio and gallery space.
On to Edel Rodriguez, whose recent work includes a now-famous cover for Der Spiegel, savagely expressing European dismay at POTUS:
(#4) (Misattributed to Nishant Choksi in an earlier posting)
From the magazine’s site:
For the Aug. 28 issue of TIME on hate in America we turned to artist Edel Rodriguez to create a cover to capture the aftermath of the Charlottesville tragedy. With his bold, graphic approach, Rodriguez depicts a protester giving a Nazi salute while draped in an American flag.
On the artist, from Wikipedia:
Edel Rodriguez (born August 22, 1971 in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban American artist. He is a Cuban born American illustrator/artist and children’s book author. He uses a variety of materials, his work ranges from conceptual to portraiture and landscape. Socialist propaganda and western advertising, island culture and contemporary city life are all aspects of his life that inform his work.
One theatre illustration by Rodriguez:
(#5)
And then a striking image whose content I can’t be sure of and am reluctant to speculate about:
(#6)
Included here because the cowboy hat seems to allude to a KKK hood (or a Mexican Day of the Dead mask, or both). The image is in his portfolio on Allpick, but without any explanation. My guess about the subject is that it’s George W. Bush, but I’m not at all sure of that.
August 18, 2017 at 2:49 pm |
What’s really cool about the New Yorker cover is the two different ways that the effort to move the boat is futile.