ABSTRACT
A few years ago, the American editorial illustrator Brad Holland contributed a wonderfully subjective, ironic chapter to Steven Heller and Marshall Arisman’s edited book, The Education of an Illustrator, in which he roared through the history of art by means of a “glossary of terms” that covered not only all of the major movements in Art and Design, but some basic terms for the layman. Holland’s helpful explanation of the oft heard expression, “That’s not Art, that’s Illustration” is in the form of a splendid rant:
Everybody is an artist these days. Rock and roll singers are artists. So are movie directors, performance artists, make-up artists, tattoo artists, con artists, and rap artists. Movie stars are artists. Madonna is an artist, because she explores her own sexuality. Snoop Doggy Dog is an artist because he explores other people’s sexuality. Victims who express their pain are artists. So are guys in prison who express themselves on shirt cardboard. Even consumers are artists when they express themselves in their selection of commodities. The only people left in America who seem not to be artists are illustrators. (16)
The title of Holland’s short chapter was “Express Yourself-It’s Later Than You Think.” As well as conforming to our glorious tradition within the world of illustration of paranoia, inferiority complex, and navel-gazing, it was in many ways a prophetic statement of the need for illustrators to break out of the subservient stereotype that had prevailed for so long.
