Exaggerating the obvious (Posted Date: Friday, March 19, 2004)
It’s fair to say that the art of caricature, or even more broadly the art of illustration, doesn’t get its due respect among the artistic literati. In the world of fine art, they are forms that are treated with less than overwhelming respect, but there are some in the community changing that perception everyday, including artist Victor Pross. "Illustration has historically held a lesser spot in the art world. Caricature and illustration are viewed as an inferior art form than what is defined as ‘fine art,’ perhaps because it is commissioned rather than self-generated," Pross wrote in the January 2004 issue of Caricature magazine.
"Most of my work is self-generated and holds no other direction other than what this artist gave it. In fact, in creating many of the present works I found at some moments I flew out of myself, becoming purely a channel for inspiration; there was an almost total loss of self-consciousness." "I’ve always been of the belief that caricature can be a legitimate art form, but is traditionally looked down upon in the artistic community as on the lower rung," he tells the Town Crier. "But I studied fine art and I decided that caricature is an interesting genre that you can employ fine art techniques and also to have something more adult- or edgy-oriented as opposed to always irritatingly cutesy, wutesy. "Only now the art form is getting more serious consideration and just even cartooning work altogether, where you have now everybody realizing that cartoons just aren’t for children, whether you’re watching South Park or whether you’re reading a graphic novel."
Pross, who lives in the Danforth and Woodbine area, is an award-winning professional artist, specializing in high quality caricatures. His popularity is growing steadily and his work is in considerable demand. Pross has been interviewed on several television shows, including On the Arts, and News At Noon and he has had his work featured in various magazines, comic books and other publications. Recently Pross was commissioned to create artwork for ‘Raise The Grail’ — The Hockey, a revolutionary new board game. He was commissioned to create the art for the game because of "his unique style and his ability to bring the game visually alive."
His has also completed a coffee-table book titled Icons and Idols: A Portrait of The Twentieth Century, which he is hoping to get published. Icons is a satire of the makers and breakers of the century featuring the caricature art of Pross accompanied with text by Canadian writer Edward Keenan. And, if that wasn’t enough, Pross is working on the documentary, Bohemian Odyssey, which takes a look at modern caricature artists and their work, but as well features a historical retrospective on the art. "It’s much more than just looking at somebody’s features, knowing nothing about them and just exaggerating those features that might be prominent," he says of an art form that is misperceived as something that takes place only on a sidewalk or the fair.
"Most people assume it’s going after unattractive features and that’s a mistake, it’s not going after unattractive features, it’s going towards focusing on prominent features, distinctive features. "It’s also a matter of knowing something about the person that can be incorporated in the picture. The good caricaturist would take the time to find out about something about the person where their personality is reflective so that they just don’t stand there like a clump of clay interchangeable with any other body. "In a lot of (my) paintings there are visual clues and biographical indications if you search hard enough," he says. Sometimes they can be ironic; sometimes they can be coy; sometimes they can be humorous juxtapositions, such as the painting of playwright Samuel Beckett, who was a very miserable, existentially angst kind of guy and I thought there’s an interesting juxtaposition to have this Pollyannaish ’70s’ happy face hovering above him wishing him to have a nice day, so I thought that was interesting to do that and if I didn’t know that about him — if I was just given photographs and was told ‘yeah, he’s playwright now go and do the job.’ But because I took the time to find out what the hell this guy’s about, I incorporated that."
The art form spans a wide variety of genres, with Pross dabbling in almost every aspect — from book covers to CD covers; characters in a board games to characters on a story board; from contemporary portraits of the average Joe to commissions of celebrities. Most recently Pross was commissioned to do a caricature of Hollywood director Ron Howard, who was in town scouting locations for his film Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe and Renée Zellweger.
The heads at the Toronto Film Studio wanted to get Howard something for his 50th birthday (March 1) and approached Pross. "They just searched out my name and they reviewed 10 or 15 other caricature artists and decided on me," says Pross. "They thought because it is his birthday, they wanted to note it naturally, because turning 50 is such a turning point in one’s life, and they thought what can we get this guy that we can afford and something that is original. "They thought, ‘well, let’s get him something that he wouldn’t necessarily already have or something that is entirely original.’ I think that an original work of art — something that is not mass produced — is certainly something that is unique and they thought because he does have a sense of humour, they thought they would hire a caricature artist to do a painting of him."
The rendering, highlighting Howard’s career — noting his freckled-face turn as Opie Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show; to portraying Ritchie Cunningham on Happy Days; to moving on to feature films with roles in American Graffiti and his numerous times behind the camera as a director. The picture was presented to him the night of the Academy Awards, when a special pre-birthday celebration was held for him. "I just thought what would be an interesting (opportunity) to do something that is very abstract like that, commemorating a career, but also acknowledging his birthday of course," says Pross. "Let’s do that via train, because you have at the beginning of the train going way back and then you’re moving forward, which is the locomotive part and each caboose (captures) different aspects of his career and he’s got greater things also to look forward to, because he’s going to a destination in where he came from. "
It was a big hit. As soon as the painting was presented in a very dramatic way by first covering it and then flashing it. It was a big shock, everybody went into like ‘wow; oh my God,’ and laughter and guffaws and that was what was reported back to me and it registered the effect that they were going after. Ron Howard could hardly concentrate on the rest of the Oscar night because he was always going back and looking at it and chuckling and making further commentary on some detail of the painting."
**
