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News, Arts and Leisure, Obituaries
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Noted Westport Illustrator Bernie Fuchs Dies at 76
Bernie Fuchs, a Westport illustrator whose influential work ranged from presidential portraits to classic racing cars, died Thursday of esophageal cancer at a care facility in Fairfield, the Washington Post said today. He was 76. 
Bernie Fuchs: balanced art and commerce. File photo
His work appeared in many magazines from Cosmopolitan to Sports Illustrated and seamlessly blended qualities of traditional narrative with hints of abstract composition, the newspaper said.
Among his portraits was one of President John F. Kennedy, now in the Kennedy Library permanent collection,. “I spent a half hour with him,” Fuchs recently recalled. “When I walked out, I was literally in a daze. I just couldn’t believe I was just with the president of the United States.”
Fuchs was adept at balancing art and commerce. “He met the needs of mass-circulation magazines accustomed to Norman Rockwell-style realism, but he injected a fresh vitality and impressionism that became hugely popular and transformed the illustration field,” the Washington Post said.
Fuchs became an author in 2004 with “Ride like the Wind: A Tale of the Pony Express.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) File photo
More recently, he contributed his talents to the world of children’s books, bringing his mastery of drama, mood, and detail to the texts he illuminated. In 2004. Fuchs made his debut as an author with the self-illustrated story “Ride like the Wind: A Tale of the Pony Express.”
Fuchs is one of the Westport artists featured in the new documentary film “Years in the Making.” This week it won a first place feature documentary award at the SkyFest II film festival in Ashville, N.C., and has been accepted for showing in the New York Film Festival.
The work by veteran filmmaker Martin West and produced and written by Westporters Ann Chernow, Kristin Rasich Fox and Ada Lambert explores the theme of late life creativity of 50 painters, sculptors, photographers and illustrators from Westport and Weston.
It will have its public premiere in Nov. 8 at Westport Town Hall.
Born in O’Fallon, Ill., Fuchs grew up in the Midwest and his ambition was to become a trumpet player. A biographer noted Fuchs had no art training as a boy and no ambition to become an artist. 
John F. Kennedy portrait done in 1962. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) John F. Kennedy Library photo
“He graduated from high school without ever painting a picture or even knowing what an illustrator did,” wrote David Apatoff in a 2006 issue of Illustration magazine devoted to Fuchs.
“After high school, he permanently injured his right hand, losing three fingers in an industrial accident that threatened his ability even to hold a pencil.
“The following year, he tried to find work on the assembly line at a puppet factory but was fired for incompetence at painting cartoon puppet heads.”
Fuchs eventually attended Washington University in St. Louis, graduating with a degree from the School of Fine Arts.
After graduation, he moved to New York City to pursue his career as a commercial illustrator and artist. His career took off.
He was named “Artist of the Year” by the Artists Guild of New York in 1962—by the time he turned 30. Also, he was the youngest artist ever to be elected to the “Hall of Fame” by the New York Society of Illustrators.
His notable commissions in addition to Kennedy, included Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, as well as other such notables as Martin Luther King, Queen Elizabeth, Bob Hope, Katharine Hepburn, Arnold Palmer, Muhammad Ali, Ted Koppel and Jack Nicklaus. 
A Bernie Fuchs painting commissioned by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo
He was a recipient of more than 100 awards, including the prestigious Hamilton King Award.
In 1992, Fuchs was named Sports Artist of the Year by the United States Sports Academy.
In 1996, his prints from Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis’s private collection were sold at auction in New York. In 1998, he was commisioned by the U.S. Postal Service to design four U.S. postage stamps
His work for almost every major magazine from Sports Illustrated to The New Yorker has earned him a high degree of recognition worldwide. His overwhelming impact on the field of communication arts is legendary.
Fuchs’s impressive body of work focuses on historical and sports themes including limited edition prints for the PGA World Hall of Fame. His solo exhibits include works on equine art, jazz and golf, and have been displayed throughout the world.
A 1966 TV Guide cover of Frank Sinatra by Fuchs. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) File photo
His most recent exhibits include galleries in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Scottsdale, Telluride, Colo., Palm Beach, London and Los Angeles.
Fuchs has been a Westport resident since 1960 where he became a faculty member at the Famous Artists Schools and Illustrators Workshop. It was a time of rapid growth for the town, which was not to his liking.
In a 1968 article, The New York Times quoted him as saying: “It [Westport] was a pretty New England town, with camaraderie of artists, but now there are so many people, so many shopping centers, and so little taste, that the appearance of the place has become appalling.”
The Times said among his objections were the cost of land in Westport, “which has increased 75 percent in the last decade, and the decline of the Boston Post Road there, which has become a tawdry crowded row of cheap stores, with nine filling stations in a one-mile stretch.”
A 1974 Sports Illustrated cover by Fuchs of O.J. Simpson. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Sports Illustrated photo
David Apatoff, who wrote about him in Illustrator magazine three years ago, reported on the death of his friend on his blog.
“I recently made a pilgrimage to Bernie’s hospital bed,” he said.
“He was pale, gaunt and under heavy sedation. He could no longer eat or breathe except through tubes.
“He had lost the ability to speak so he used a little notebook for scribbling short messages to his family, who had gathered around him for the end.
“I looked down at his notebook and saw he had been sketching a human ear.
“I said, ‘Wow-- still drawing? You don’t give up easily, do you?’
“He gave me a tight-lipped smile with a tough, defiant look in his eye and shook his head no, he didn’t give up easy and he was damn proud of it.
“That attitude, which was the core of his greatness, was still inside him then and would be the last part to leave.
“The expression in his eyes alone was worth the trip to Connecticut.”
Among the survivors are his wife, Anna Lee Fuchs of Westport; two daughters, Cynthia Fuchs of Washington and Ellise Fuchs of Torino, Italy; a son, Derek Fuchs of Casselberry, Fla.; and three grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Patterson Club, 1118 Cross Highway in Fairfield.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society.
__________
See a collection of Fuchs’s works here.
Comments: Comment Policy
Bernie Fuchs was also a guiding faculty member at Famous Artists School, founded in Westport (now located in Wilton). You can see more examples of his work here.
This news makes me feel so sad. Bernie was the nicest man and our condolences to his wife, Babes, and his daughters. How he loved his grandchildren! My father (Hardie Gramatky) thought his art was terrific.
I am saddened to learn belatedly of the death of one my idols of illustration. Last night while browsing the website of the Society of Illustrators I saw Mr. Bernie Fuchs’ memorial announcement. His skill with both line and color was exquisite and a marvel to behold. This wannabe artist took the Famous Artist Course in the late 1960’s and learned from Bernie Fuch and the rest of that distinguished faculty. I still have my text book binders and recently acquired Mr. Fuch’s children’s book on the Pony Express: Ride like the Wind. I still draw inspiration from illustration Masters like him, Bob Peak, Robert Heindel and Frank McCarthy- all now gone but their artistic legacy remains to inspire us.
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