Sam Viviano
Encyclopedia
Sam Viviano is an American
caricature
artist and art director
. Viviano’s caricatures are known for their wide jaws, which Viviano has explained is a result of his incorporation of side views as well as front views into his distortions of the human face. He has also developed a reputation for his ability to do crowd scenes. Explaining his twice-yearly covers for Institutional Investor magazine, Viviano has said that his upper limit is sixty caricatures in nine days.
degree. In 1975, he drove up the East Coast to New York
, where he attempted to show art directors his portfolio, which consisted of various types of work he did in art school, including cartoons, abstract expressionist paintings, etc. When no assignments came his way, he took a job as a textile
designer, while he pondered his lack of success in the illustration market. He soon came to the realization that, in order to compete in the field, he needed to choose a specialty, stating that what one sacrifices in width and breadth one gains in depth. He decided that he enjoyed doing caricature the most, and took out ads featuring his caricature work in trade directories such as Showcase and Black Book (against the advice of publishers who insisted that depictions of children and products would be more marketable). These advertisements yielded his first notable advertising illustration, a full-page ad in the New York Times for “On TV”, a satellite service presenting the 1979 James Bond
film Moonraker
.
By this time, Viviano was already working for many titles published by Scholastic Magazines (most notably Dynamite! and Bananas
). Because of the nature and style of his illustration, he was encouraged by a number of colleagues to show his work to Mad magazine. Although Viviano’s samples were well-liked, he was told that there were no openings at that magazine, as it was a “closed shop” of about a dozen artists. In 1980, however, he was contacted by Mad Editor Al Feldstein, who told him that their usual cover artist had died, and asked Viviano if he would provide one for the magazine. The cover, Viviano’s first, was for Mad #223 (June 1980). It depicted actor Larry Hagman
in his role of J.R. Ewing
from the television series Dallas
, spoofing that show’s “Who shot J.R.?
” storyline.http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=94023 Viviano has stated that he was so nervous about his first Mad job that he made the illustration twice. His next assignment from MAD came four years later, at which point he began regular contributions, including the movie parodies
and mock advertisements that magazine is known for.
He has since done work for corporations and for the advertising industry. He has contributed to Rolling Stone
, Family Weekly, Reader's Digest
, and Consumer Reports
.
Viviano taught a caricature class at Manhattan
’s School of Visual Arts
from 1981 to 1992, where he expressed the viewpoint that the goal of caricature is to use exaggeration to express an inner truth about an individual. Among the students of his who went on to enjoy prominent careers as illustrators specializing in caricature are Hanoch Piven
, Jeff Wong, Eric Palma, and Andre Leroy Davis.
Viviano produced the first digital illustration
for Mad magazine. The illustration, a series of nine satirical road signs parodying aspects of rock concerts, accompanied an article written by Desmond Devlin titled “Mad’s International Signs for the Rock World”, which appeared in Mad #328 (June 1994).
In 1994, Mad editors Nick Meglin and John Ficarra invited Viviano to come on staff at the magazine, but he declined in order to focus on his freelance career. In late 1999, they again extended the invitation, this time for the position of the magazine’s Art director, and Viviano, now the father of a four-year-old girl, accepted. He oversees a staff of five, producing, in addition to Mad, the reprint title Mad Classics and Mad Kids, a new magazine targeted to 8-to-10-year olds.
Viviano is listed in the most recent edition of The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons by Maurice Horn.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
artist and art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
. Viviano’s caricatures are known for their wide jaws, which Viviano has explained is a result of his incorporation of side views as well as front views into his distortions of the human face. He has also developed a reputation for his ability to do crowd scenes. Explaining his twice-yearly covers for Institutional Investor magazine, Viviano has said that his upper limit is sixty caricatures in nine days.
Education and career
Viviano grew up on Detroit’s east side, and attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine ArtsBachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
degree. In 1975, he drove up the East Coast to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, where he attempted to show art directors his portfolio, which consisted of various types of work he did in art school, including cartoons, abstract expressionist paintings, etc. When no assignments came his way, he took a job as a textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
designer, while he pondered his lack of success in the illustration market. He soon came to the realization that, in order to compete in the field, he needed to choose a specialty, stating that what one sacrifices in width and breadth one gains in depth. He decided that he enjoyed doing caricature the most, and took out ads featuring his caricature work in trade directories such as Showcase and Black Book (against the advice of publishers who insisted that depictions of children and products would be more marketable). These advertisements yielded his first notable advertising illustration, a full-page ad in the New York Times for “On TV”, a satellite service presenting the 1979 James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film Moonraker
Moonraker (film)
Moonraker is the eleventh spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The third and final film in the series to be directed by Lewis Gilbert, it co-stars Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Corinne Clery, and Richard Kiel...
.
By this time, Viviano was already working for many titles published by Scholastic Magazines (most notably Dynamite! and Bananas
Bananas (magazine)
Bananas was an American humor magazine for teenagers. Scholastic Press published 72 issues between 1975 and 1984, plus various "Yearbooks" and paperback books....
). Because of the nature and style of his illustration, he was encouraged by a number of colleagues to show his work to Mad magazine. Although Viviano’s samples were well-liked, he was told that there were no openings at that magazine, as it was a “closed shop” of about a dozen artists. In 1980, however, he was contacted by Mad Editor Al Feldstein, who told him that their usual cover artist had died, and asked Viviano if he would provide one for the magazine. The cover, Viviano’s first, was for Mad #223 (June 1980). It depicted actor Larry Hagman
Larry Hagman
Larry Martin Hagman is an American film and television actor, producer and director known for playing J.R. Ewing in the 1980s primetime television soap opera Dallas and Major Anthony "Tony" Nelson in the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.-Early life and career:Hagman was born in Fort Worth, Texas...
in his role of J.R. Ewing
J.R. Ewing
John Ross Ewing, Jr., more commonly known as J. R. Ewing, played by Larry Hagman, was a central, nefarious figure on the hit CBS television series Dallas . J. R...
from the television series Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
, spoofing that show’s “Who shot J.R.?
Who shot J.R.?
Who shot J. R.? is an advertising catchphrase that American network CBS created in 1980 to promote the television series Dallas.In the final scene of the 1979–1980 season, the character J. R. Ewing, played by Larry Hagman, was shot by a hidden assailant. The episode, titled "A House Divided", was...
” storyline.http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=94023 Viviano has stated that he was so nervous about his first Mad job that he made the illustration twice. His next assignment from MAD came four years later, at which point he began regular contributions, including the movie parodies
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
and mock advertisements that magazine is known for.
He has since done work for corporations and for the advertising industry. He has contributed to Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, Family Weekly, Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
, and Consumer Reports
Consumer Reports
Consumer Reports is an American magazine published monthly by Consumers Union since 1936. It publishes reviews and comparisons of consumer products and services based on reporting and results from its in-house testing laboratory. It also publishes cleaning and general buying guides...
.
Viviano taught a caricature class at Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
’s School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
from 1981 to 1992, where he expressed the viewpoint that the goal of caricature is to use exaggeration to express an inner truth about an individual. Among the students of his who went on to enjoy prominent careers as illustrators specializing in caricature are Hanoch Piven
Hanoch Piven
Hanoch Piven is an Israeli mixed media artist best known for his celebrity caricatures.-History:Hanoch Piven was born in Uruguay and raised in Israel. He studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York, graduating in 1992...
, Jeff Wong, Eric Palma, and Andre Leroy Davis.
Viviano produced the first digital illustration
Digital illustration
Computer illustration or digital illustration is the use of digital tools to produce images under the direct manipulation of the artist, usually through a pointing device such as a tablet or a mouse. It is distinguished from computer-generated art, which is produced by a computer using mathematical...
for Mad magazine. The illustration, a series of nine satirical road signs parodying aspects of rock concerts, accompanied an article written by Desmond Devlin titled “Mad’s International Signs for the Rock World”, which appeared in Mad #328 (June 1994).
In 1994, Mad editors Nick Meglin and John Ficarra invited Viviano to come on staff at the magazine, but he declined in order to focus on his freelance career. In late 1999, they again extended the invitation, this time for the position of the magazine’s Art director, and Viviano, now the father of a four-year-old girl, accepted. He oversees a staff of five, producing, in addition to Mad, the reprint title Mad Classics and Mad Kids, a new magazine targeted to 8-to-10-year olds.
Viviano is listed in the most recent edition of The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons by Maurice Horn.
Personal life
Viviano is married to a New York physician, and is known to include his wife and daughter, as well as various other members of his family, in the backgrounds of scenes he illustrates. He is a cousin to New Testament scholar and author Benedict Viviano.External links
- Complete list of Viviano's work for MAD Magazine
- The Complete Book of Caricature by Bob Staake
- The Disco Handbook, 1979, by Bruce Pollack, Chapter 8 illustrations by Sam Viviano