At some point, the fine art/museum world will recognize how truly brilliant a trailblazing artist like Coby Whitmore is. His exploration of bold colors, flattened, simplified space, semi-abstract designs, and his ability to render the human figure with masterful academic understanding that clearly illustrates a narrative, is unrivaled by almost all ultra-contemporary artists. Many of the same artists are looking back at Whitmore, Peak, Fucks, Denison, etc, and to be polite - borrowing. The difference with the mid-century illustrators is that they are far superior artists and can draw hands, noses, lips, and eyes with anatomical correctness and in perspective. The ultra-contemporary artists almost always have this loose, blocky style that looks like a study. The reason for this is that they, in nearly every case, do not have the skill that comes with years of formal art training to do a Coby Whitmore. Instead, they do a big sketch. Yet we see many of these ultra contemporary artists selling deep into the six figures and beyond, as they adorn the walls of our most prestigious museums to awe-struck critics. In the present work, 60-plus years after it was painted, the big point is not the cute concept of a 50s blond beauty engaging in a moment of superficial self-reflection as she does make up while a customs agent inspects her lingerie. What's important is the artist's painting style and how he focuses on radical color relations and unexpected design. His almost overall use of a punchy unnatural yellow for the whole background of an airport interior is striking. It vibrates the viewer's eyeballs as it creates a rough silhouette of the figures and interior structures. There is precedent for using extreme color and an emphasis on flattening pictorial space and it comes from Matisse and the Fauves. However, Whitmore crafts his unique style and applies it to illustration art to tell a story for a mass audience. What's notable is how he creates a graphic tension in the composition with an upward view of the woman and a downward view of the man. A diagonal formed by the baggage belt leads your eye inwards. The negative and positive spaces of the figures and check-in counter numbers are quite brilliantly done. This work most likely ran in a woman’s magazine like Cosmopolitan. Signed lower right. Printer's production notes outside the live area. Board size 27.75 x 20 Coby Whitmore, American, 1913–1988 Gouache, graphite on Illustration Board 21 - 16 inches US$26,000 Plus Shipping
