Robert Weber, New Yorker Cartoonist
by Nick Galifianakis
Robert Weber, 92, and one of the truly gifted cartoonists, passed away a few days ago. Here is, I believe, his first cartoon for the New Yorker in 1962 (plus a couple of other smiles). I urge you to stroll through the hundreds of others he created over the last half century. An astute observer, he could puncture the pretentious and entitled with withering dryness.
Weber was a compositional master and the deftest of draftsman. His buttery-soft charcoal line had a simple, energy-filled immediacy yet somehow also retained the forethought of structure, a balance of in-the-moment expressiveness but with the weight of any great painting. This is the rarely (rarely) achieved Holy Grail of making art.
He is first among artists that have nudged me to draw more courageously, and I'm deeply saddened by the passing of one of my great heroes.
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| "Lucy, move - you're blocking Pliny the Elder" |
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