What absolutely gorgeous little drawings - so simple and appealing! Even his pencil line displays craftsmanship through its elegant use of a natural thick and thin sculptural quality, probably acheived solely by varying the pressure on his pencil.
I would love to see a collection of these compiled in a book about Mr. Wolf.
"The photo in the oval type frame is from the time period he did the work for the MGM Grand Hotel in Vegas and it was used as the photo for the Lowery Gallery brochure that went along with the book,..."
Didier, I checked with Lauren and the book she's referring to is Pierre Lambert's Pinocchio book. The Lowery Gallery was offering copies autographed by the artists mentioned in the entry. The photo was used in a brochure to advertise the availability of the book.
Lauren added some information about Wolf's involvement with the MGM Grand Hotel. "The picture was taken at the time dad was doing creative projects for the then new MGM Grand Hotel and Theme Park in Las Vegas, he had bigger than life size, wonderful, new versions of Wizard of Oz bronze characters in the lobby - he also had helped them design areas for the kids to go and participate in learning a bit of animation. It was discarded after a while... do not recall why. He also designed the silver dollar coins for the slot machines, and of course there is an additional character called Whacky Wolf."
Berny Wolf's daughter, Lauren Wolf-Purcell, was kind enough to send these photos of her father and some panel cartoons that he created. Click on any image to see an enlargement. [Image] Berny Wolf is on the left at the drawing board and Bud Swift is wearing the Jiminy Cricket hat. Based on the calendar in the background, this picture was taken in May of 1939. [Image] Lauren writes, "The photo in the oval type frame is from the time period he did the work for the MGM Grand Hotel in Vegas and it was used as the photo for the Lowery Gallery brochure that went along with the book, with other animators included, i.e. Ward Kimball, Ken O'Connor, Joe Grant, Frank Thomas, Thor Putnam, Don Lusk, and Ollie Johnston." [Image] Berny Wolf on his 94th birthday. [Image] [Image] Lauren writes, "The cartoon panels are ones that he worked on and we could not get syndicated. That is so upsetting to me as he deserved a chance and I promised him, I would try and get him published. So someday, I will find a way, even if it is using his panels in another format."
posted by Mark Mayerson at 8:12 PM on Sep 20, 2006
"More Berny Wolf"
4 Comments -
What absolutely gorgeous little drawings - so simple and appealing! Even his pencil line displays craftsmanship through its elegant use of a natural thick and thin sculptural quality, probably acheived solely by varying the pressure on his pencil.
I would love to see a collection of these compiled in a book about Mr. Wolf.
September 20, 2006 9:16 PM
"The photo in the oval type frame is from the time period he did the work for the MGM Grand Hotel in Vegas and it was used as the photo for the Lowery Gallery brochure that went along with the book,..."
What book?
September 21, 2006 12:25 PM
Didier, I checked with Lauren and the book she's referring to is Pierre Lambert's Pinocchio book. The Lowery Gallery was offering copies autographed by the artists mentioned in the entry. The photo was used in a brochure to advertise the availability of the book.
Lauren added some information about Wolf's involvement with the MGM Grand Hotel. "The picture was taken at the time dad was doing creative projects for the then new MGM Grand Hotel and Theme Park in Las Vegas, he had bigger than
life size, wonderful, new versions of Wizard of Oz bronze characters in the lobby - he also had helped them design areas for the kids to go and participate in learning a bit of animation. It was discarded after a while... do not recall why. He also designed the silver dollar coins for the slot machines, and of course there is an additional character called
Whacky Wolf."
September 21, 2006 9:21 PM
Thanks Mark :-)
September 22, 2006 1:18 AM