A Few More from Robert Shore

Here is the earliest piece I've found by Robert Shore, from 1953.



And this one, below, which was apparently a plate in a 1950s edition of Edgar Allen Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher."



Included in the 1960 American Artist magazine article on Shore was a sketch for an illustration that appeared in an Abbot Laboratories promotional magazine called "What's New."



The sketch resulted from Shore first researching a variety of photographs of actual train wrecks. Shore's composite drawing includes elements culled from the artist's imagination as well as elements of the research photos. The finished illustration, below, was painted in casein on gessoed masonite.



Casein seems to have been Robert Shore's preferred medium at the time of the 1960 article, so it's very likely he employed it for this double page spread in Parents magazine just a year later.



Shore describes working in heavy casein impasto, blocking in major forms...



... then moving on to thin casein glazes mixed with damar emulsion.



"I prefer casein to oil because it suits my temperament," said Shore. "I need to be able to make immediate, intuitive changes. The drying time of oil is too slow for me; I cannot wait to cover a bad area."



Above, a plate from Herman Melville's Billy Budd, which Shore illustrated in 1965 and below, a spread from Boys' Life magazine, 1966.



At a point in the early 60s (and I was unable to determine an exact date) Robert Shore was invited to participate in an unprecedented artistic endeavor.

"In March 1962, James Webb, Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, suggested that artists be enlisted to document the historic effort to send the first human beings to the moon."



"John Walker, director of the National Gallery of Art, was among those who applauded the idea, urging that artists be encouraged "…not only to record the physical appearance of the strange new world which space technology is creating, but to edit, select and probe for the inner meaning and emotional impact of events which may change the destiny of our race."



"Working together, James Dean, a young artist employed by the NASA Public Affairs office, and Dr. H. Lester Cooke, curator of paintings at the National Gallery of Art, created a program that dispatched artists to NASA facilities with an invitation to paint whatever interested them."



"The result was an extraordinary collection of works of art proving, as one observer noted, "that America produced not only scientists and engineers capable of shaping the destiny of our age, but also artists worthy to keep them company." ~ quote and images from The Smithsonian National Air and Space museum website




Below, (by coincidence?) Robert Shore was commissioned to paint this very space-like image for Boys' Life, October 1965



Another Boy's Life spread and small spot, this time from 1969, that suggest Shore's style was shifting in new directions.





The final piece I have by Robert Shore (from 1973) shows a surprising degree of realism. And for me, a startling realization that, as a child, I had an intimate familiarity with at least one illustration by the artist. I owned a copy of this book when I was nine...



... and that cover scared the bujeezuz out of me!

Robert Shore: "When I approach a painting or an illustration, I am concerned with the graphic drama of the interplay of shape, form, and color."

Robert Shore was born in 1924 in New York City. He studied at the Cranbrook Academy (under Zoltan Sepeshy and Bill McVey)and the Art Students League.



By the time these pieces above and below were published in Redbook magazine in 1961, Shore was himself a teacher; first at Cooper Union and then at New York's School of Visual Arts. His work had been exhibited at the Detroit Institute of Fine Arts, the National Academy, and the Smithsonian Institution. In 1967 he was awarded a gold medal by the Society of Illustrators.



Working in Realism was obviously not a a problem for Shore (as demonstrated above) but he seems to have been much more interested in exploring other approaches. "Some of today's best illustration is done by artists who never studied to be illustrators at all," said Shore. "But instead were trained in related fields of painting, printmaking and sculpture."



"Their natural approach, stimulated by contact with these fields, has made them admirably equipped to meet the exacting graphic demands of industry."

Robert Shore embraced that idea of a broad artistic background: he created sculptures and ceramics, taking first prize for sculpture in the 1954 Young American Craftsmen Show.

Regarding the execution of this woodcut, which he carved into a 3-foot-long plank, Shore said, "I love the physical act of cutting into a soft wood. It brings together the the most exciting qualities of sculpture and the graphic arts. Like all techniques that require real physical participation, it is extremely satisfying."



"My prime motivation for a pictorial idea may be something I have seen or felt or simply stumbled upon," said Shore. "When I approach a painting or an illustration, I am concerned with the graphic drama of the interplay of shape, form, and color."



"Very often the subject matter merely acts as a catalyst which begins the action of design."



"I don't mean by this that I am not interested in subject matter. But I'm interested in it only insofar as it contributes to the possibilities of pictorial drama."



* Continued tomorrow

Robert Shore: "Every artist should follow his own drummer, but on this journey he should keep an open mind."

"Some of the artists I admire most," said Robert Shore, "are Klee, Goya..."



"... Rembrandt and Picasso, and many of the pre-Renaissance painters."



"All of them were deeply involved with the subject but never to the point where they neglected the over-all pictorial concept."



"Every artist should follow his own drummer, but on this journey he should keep an open mind, eye, and heart to all that is going on about him in both art and life."



"In one's search for a personal idiom, there can be no substitute for the study of the great traditions in art. I cannot think of a period in art in which there aren't works to my liking."

* Continued tomorrow.

Robert Shore: "First and foremost, one should try to find oneself as an artist."

For some time, I've been intrigued by the work of an artist named Robert Shore.

(A photo of the artist, circa 1960)


Having stumbled across his illustrations here and there for several years now - but never consistently - I've been curious about where he fit into 'the bigger picture' of illustration in the '50s and '60s.

The first occasion I had to see Shore's work was in a 1957 issue of Collier's.



By no means a big splash of an illustration, but it's charming quality of stylization and energetic painting technique caught my attention.



Then, for the longest time, I could not find another example of Shore's work.



The next time I saw a Robert Shore illustration it was in Redbook magazine. Shore painted a beautiful spread for the December 1962 issue.



But this was somehow different. Yes, there was a lovely textural quality to the paint, much like that earlier Shore piece, but this artwork seemed more realistic (in spite of an obviously deliberate abstraction to the overall design). I wondered, could this be the same Robert Shore?

A couple of years passed before I had my answer. I discovered an article on Shore in the November 1960 issue of American Artist magazine which demonstrated just how diverse Robert Shore's work could be.



The article takes pains to establish that Shore was both a fine artist and a commercial one - and was comfortable and proficient working in many styles and mediums.



Most satisfying of all was reading Shore's own words, in which he describes his personal philosophy regarding picture-making:

"First and foremost," said Shore, "one should try to find oneself as an artist. One should study painting, sculpture, and design, and, infact, investigate all the creative aspects and possibilities in art."



That certainly sits well with me and helps explains why I had felt so pleasantly surprised by each new Robert Shore illustration I came across...

I still don't have a whole lot of this artist's work to share with you - but I have enough - and at last I have some relevant information to accompany the images. This week: a look at the work of illustrator/fine artist/educator Robert Shore.

* Continued tomorrow.