Painting the Famous

[Victor Pross]

Painting the Famous: a few exploits in a loony career

by Victor Pross

It’s fair to say that the art of caricature, or even more broadly speaking, the art of illustration doesn’t get its due respect among the artistic literati. It’s also fair to say that this snobbish attitude is disappearing in subtle increments as times moves on.

The layperson’s response to caricature art is even less predictable--more so than the artistic literati. I have been an artist for many years and I have experienced many various responses to my art. This has spanned the range of joyful appreciation or disconcerted confusion---even hostility. The more mild responses have been “Don’t you draw real people?” or “Why do you always draw this weird stuff?” to “What kind of acid trip are you on?”

These are remarks that can crush the heart of a sensitive artist. Of course, I retain my cool as the jovial bohemian emeritus. Luckily, an emotional balance is reached that tips the scale when most of the responses are “Wow, that’s amazing!” or “How much would you charge to paint a picture of me?” (Let’s face it; money is the highest form of flattery).

Even more exciting are the responses I receive at live showings of my works: “Do you have a book out that features your work?” It’s a question I hear from different people with increasing frequency. And it’s a question I hear from both common people and celebrities. I find it particularly flattering that so many people would consider my work as commercially viable to be featured in a book. In response, I am preparing Icons & Idols: A Portrait of Our Times. It’s a book that will encompass the makers and shakers of our times, the famous. It will feature both dead and living icons.

I have been asked if such a book would only accomplish to offend the famous people who will appear in it—those who are still alive, of course. This is a query that has concerned me and it is a reasonable question. Is it a possibility that many prickly personalities would fail to offer a public endorsement of the book, and would seek to squish it? I am happy to report that much evidence indicates the very opposite. I have discovered that the opportunity to be depicted in caricature is welcomed and it is met with a great enthusiasm. I have experienced this fact time and again. As caricature artist Len Redman writes, “Celebrities thrive on caricatures. It’s a symbolic stamp of their success. When a person has been caricatured, it means he or she has arrived.”

Here is how it has worked out for me:

The first experienced I encountered that has fermented this conviction was a chance meeting with writer and philosopher George H. Smith, (author of “Atheism: The case against God” and “Ayn Rand, Atheism and other Heresies”). This brilliant man has written about metaphysics and epistemology and was astounded by my work. Can you imagine? People think of caricature as a light, trivial thing. George H. Smith has treated this caricature artist as a discrete entity and every bit as worthy an artist as a soloist at the Philharmonic. So enthused was Mr. Smith for my work that he has made the public declaration: “Victor’s caricatures, aside from being cleaver in their own right, also convey an intelligence and knowledge of his subjects that is sometimes lacking in similar sketches.” A compliment such as this, and coming from a renowned scholar, has shot my ego into the orbit.

Another particularity gratifying experience in my career as a caricature artist was when I was commissioned by a film studio to paint a caricature of actor Fred Ward. Many US film companies shoot on Canadian soil and I was only too happy to secure the job to paint yet another noteworthy person. Actually, the nature of this commission is unique in that I was to paint a caricature of Fred Ward’s character in the film. A character caricature!

Apparently, Fred Ward’s film character is an obnoxious bore that is cut down to size by a belittling caricature rendering that is plastered on the front page of a fictional newspaper. “What the hell is this?” explodes Fred Ward’s character while holding up my masterpiece for the world to see. My original agreement with the studio was to have the painting reproduced on film and afterwards was to be returned to me. However, Fred Ward fell in love with his caricatured reflection and so the studio ended up buying the original painting for the respected actor. Who would have thought that a Hollywood actor would have such great taste in art?

Word got around California somehow about the Ward rendering and a few months later Hollywood again beckoned for yet another caricature depiction. This time it was a gift for a powerful William Morris agent as commissioned by the agency itself. Those guys take care of each other. Or maybe it was a slight.

Most recently I was commissioned to do a caricature of another Hollywood noteworthy. In this case, none other than director Ron Howard, who was in my Toronto home town scouting locations for his film Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe. The heads at the Toronto film studio wanted to get Howard something for his 50th birthday and so they approached me. The studio wanted to get the famous director something that he wouldn’t necessarily already have or something that is entirely original.

What is better than a rendering of a caricature as a gift for that famous someone you know? Especially if it is rendered by me. B)

***

Edited January 15, 2007 by Victor Pross

[Rich Engle]

I'm sitting here anxiously waiting for my VICTOR PROSS ONE OF A KIND ALBUM COVER!!

Yes! I can hardly wait to see it! Victor was great to work with, I gave him only some lyrics, some conceptual back and forth, and turned him loose like a mad dog in a meat market.

Get some Pross while you can still get a number in line.

[Victor Pross]

I'm sitting here anxiously waiting for my VICTOR PROSS ONE OF A KIND ALBUM COVER!!

Yes! I can hardly wait to see it! Victor was great to work with, I gave him only some lyrics, some conceptual back and forth, and turned him loose like a mad dog in a meat market.

Get some Pross while you can still get a number in line.

Rich,

I have a lot to live up to! Whew. Thanks, bro. With a loony career comes a loony imagination. But if you ever post the CD cover art work, people can judge for themselves a work that is a break from caricature to...oh, let us say surrealism of a sort. It is pretty wild.

-Victor

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Ahem...

Is it abstract?

(I couldn't resist...)

Michael

[Victor Pross]

Ahem...

Is it abstract?

(I couldn't resist...)

Michael

Michael,

The Perigo and Biddle caricatures wouldn’t have been as effective if they were an abstract painting.

Come on, exploit me. What’s next?

-Victor