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Jeffrey Spalding in Today's Inspiration:

Oscar Cahén, Painter Extraordinaire - Oscar, Celebrated Illustrator

By guest author, Jeffrey Spalding C.M., R.C.A Artistic Director, Museum of Contemporary Art Calgary

The passage of time does much to alter our perceptions. Art history holds a place of great distinction for the work of Oscar Cahén as a painter. His dazzling colour and inventive compositions earned him the admiration of his contemporaries.

His erudite European training prepared him to be a role model and leading figure in the band of abstract artists that would coalesce to form the renowned group Painters Eleven.

There is still much work to be done before we will fully appreciate the extent of the influence and impact his work exerted upon the appearance of abstract art in Canada in the 1950s and subsequent generations. Nonetheless, his place within our art history is now acknowledged and well-known as an artist of exemplary singular talent, represented in our important public museum collections.

Yet at the time of his tragic death in 1956 at age 40, the star of Oscar Cahén, painter extraordinaire, might have been eclipsed in the public eye by Oscar, the renowned celebrated illustrator.

From the time of his release in 1942 from World War II internment camp at Sherbrooke, Quebec, the rise of Oscar, preeminent magazine illustrator, continued ascendant.

His prodigious output adorned the pages of countless publications;

... his witty stylistic flair earned him the chance to create a succession of magazine covers.

Illustrations by Oscar were no mere accoutrement to printed text; Oscar was a genuine celebrity with a devoted public following who eagerly awaited the publication of his next creations.

Oscar’s images encompassed a broad range of moods and human emotions.

Works from the war addressed serious issues, post war lament and tenderness, to the frivolous gaiety of celebrating festive holidays. Canada came of age, chronicled by Oscar’s depictions of the era.

They contribute immensely to the picture we hold of Canada at mid-century, a place in transition from the traditions born of the British Dominion...

... to a dynamic young nation evolving cosmopolitan airs of urban sophistication.

Much of this vision is attributable to Oscar’s illustration art.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Calgary is honoured to have the opportunity to host the Canadian premiere solo exhibition of the illustration work of Oscar Cahén and thereby re-introduce us once again to ourselves: Canada of the 1940s and 1950s.

On display through Jan. 27, 2013

Exhibit Features

Campaign Ads

An original video on televised campaign ads, shown on a 100-foot-wide video screen in the Robert H. and Clarice Smith Big Screen Theater.

Video Blog

Parody Artifacts

"Every Four Years" features several parody artifacts from Saturday Night Live, The Colbert Report and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Location: Level 6

WASHINGTON — Every four years, Americans elect a president. And every four years, battle lines are drawn as presidential candidates and reporters face off in the conflict zone known as "the campaign trail."

The Newseum's new election-year exhibit, "Every Four Years: Presidential Campaigns and the Press," explores how media coverage of presidential campaigns has evolved from William McKinley's 1896 front porch campaign to Barack Obama's 2008 Internet campaign, as candidates and reporters tangle over issues, images and control of the story.

The exhibit features interactive activities and an original video on televised campaign ads, shown on a 100-foot-wide video screen in the Robert H. and Clarice Smith Big Screen Theater.

Among the campaign artifacts on display:

A microphone used by Franklin D. Roosevelt to deliver his famous "fireside chats"

Handwritten notes taken by John F. Kennedy during a 1960 presidential debate with Richard Nixon

The "Florida, Florida, Florida" white board used by NBC's Tim Russert on election night 2000 to predict the key role the state would play in the outcome

The gold-plated Electro-Voice microphone used by conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh.

A quilt signed by reporters who traveled with John McCain on the "Straight Talk Express" during McCain's unsuccessful 2000 bid for the Republican nomination.

The jacket worn by Hillary Rodham Clinton when she became the first person to use her own website to declare her candidacy for the presidency

The suit, flag lapel pin and eyeglasses worn by Tina Fey as Sarah Palin in a 2008 "Saturday Night Live" sketch, and the blue suit with a Barack Obama pin worn by Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton.

"Every Four Years" will also feature an interactive area where Newseum visitors can create their own campaign photo ops by mixing various backgrounds and candidates. Visitors also can "vote" for their picks in the 2012 presidential election in a special Newseum voting booth.

The exhibit will be updated throughout the 2012 campaign to highlight the latest news and photos from the campaign trail.

From The Daily Cartoonist.

An original hand-colored 1986 Sunday Calvin & Hobbes original has been sold at auction for $203,150 (login required to see final bid amount). The strip was owed by Adam@Home and Red and Rover creator Brian Basset, who told me last September that he acquired the original back in 1986 after agreeing to exchange originals with Bill Watterson. A recent financial pinch prompted him to put the piece up for auction.

Here’s what Brian told me back in September:

Parting with the Watterson original was not an easy decision, but I believe it is the right decision. I am so thankful of Bill Watterson’s generosity and the opportunity his talent has given me more than a quarter of a century later. It is now time for someone else to enjoy owning this piece of Americana.

To give you perspective on the value of this piece, an original 1955 Peanuts Sunday strip by Charles Schulz sold for $113,000 and a 1957 and 1962 daily and Sunday Peanuts strip sold for a combined $106,000.

Back in February a Watterson original water color piece for a calendar was auctioned off for $107,550.

UPDATE

Michael Cavna in Comic Riffs:

A quarter-century ago, Brian Basset and Bill Watterson did what many cartooning peers do as an act of camaraderie: They swapped originals.

As with interview access to the “Calvin and Hobbes” creator himself, though, access to Watterson’s dazzling original artwork soon became an increasingly rare thing — both before and after he ended his legendary strip in 1995. So it made headlines recently when Basset — creator of the strips “Red and Rover” and “Adam@Home” — decided to put his prized 1986 Watterson original up for auction, citing that he was in a financial pinch.

Now, the record windfall from the Watterson gift should certainly help.

Over the weekend, the hand-colored Sunday original — a 13-by-9-inch marker-pen-and-watercolor on Bristol board — sold for a record-shattering $203,150, the Dallas-based Heritage Auctions told Comic Riffs on Saturday. (The hammer price before tacked-on premiums was $170,000, a Heritage official told us.)

“A world record price like this is a testament to just how beloved ‘Calvin & Hobbes’ was and is,” Todd Hignite, Heritage Auctions vice president, says in a news release, referring to the creators of “Peanuts,” “Little Nemo in Slumberland” and “Popeye.” “The final price realized tops any offering from any cartoonist ever, including the giants like Charles [Schulz], Winsor McKay and Elzie Segar.”

The previous reported record for the sale of a comic-strip original at auction was $113,500, in 2007, for a “Peanuts” original.

“I am absolutely thrilled and blown away with the final tally,” Basset tells Comic Riffs on Monday.

As is customary with many Heritage auctions, the house declined to identify the buyer out of respect to the buyer’s wishes. But Basset was able to convey the recipient’s reaction.

“I did find out, though, from the auction house that the proud new owner — a cartoon collector — of the Watterson original is equally thrilled with their purchase.

“This makes me feel great,” continues Basset, who has noted he had economic needs with a divorce in the rear-view mirror and matrimony on his road ahead. “I was hoping it would go to someone who would enjoy it as much [as] I had for all the year I owned it.”