Wednesday, December 30, 2009

RIP David Levine

So unfortunate that he's gone. I actually just discovered this great cartoonist a few days ago. My uncle gave me a book full of his caricatures of famous authors for Christmas. Here are a few of my favorites by David Levine:





From The New Yorker:

"Today came the sad news that the caricaturist and illustrator David Levine has died at the age of eighty-three. Levine began publishing illustrations in the early nineteen-sixties and his work has appeared in The New York Review of Books, Time, Esquire, and other assorted publications. He also contributed more than one hundred illustrations for The New Yorker between 1993 and 2006. Many of his portraits are satirical in nature—Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak as a sphinx, Tony Kushner sporting angel wings, Martha Stewart holding a crocodile and a bag of money. I spoke with our illustration editor Chris Curry earlier about Levine’s artistic contribution to the magazine. “What set his work apart for us was his use of color and his ability to introduce satirical elements to his portraits in unique ways,” she said. “This resulted in caricatures of unexpected humor and irony, even concerning some of the most serious subjects.”

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/backissues/2009/12/postscript-david-levine.html#ixzz0bCtLbSR

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

"Whatever Works"

"I happen to hate New Year's celebrations. Everybody desperate to have fun. Trying to celebrate in some pathetic little way. Celebrate what? A step closer to the grave? That's why I can't say enough times, whatever love you can get and give, whatever happiness you can filch or provide, every temporary measure of grace, whatever works. And don't kid yourself. Because its by no means up to your own human ingenuity. A bigger part of your existence is luck, than you'd like to admit. Christ, you know the odds of your fathers one sperm from the billions, finding the single egg that made you. Don't think about it, you'll have a panic attack."
Larry David as "Boris" in Woody Allen's "Whatever Works"