Arno Sternglass

US commercial illustrator and fine artist Arno Sternglass (1926 - 2007) is known for his work from the 1950s to the 1970s. He didn't do science fiction, but he is the artist behind my last post: He did all the illustrations for CONDEC's 1969 annual report.

Honestly, it's embarrassing that I missed this one, since he's directly credited in the opening paragraph on page 1. Salem Elzway was the first to let me know, and I've updated the post to make sure Sternglass gets the credit he deserves. I wasn't familar with the artist, but he's had a successful career, and I particularly love his corporate illustrations.

Here's a Sternglass illustration for a Texaco Crude Oil Tanker loading or unloading oil to a floating contraption. The tanker was built in 1972, and scrapped at Kaohsiung Taiwan in 1982, according to the eBay posting I found this on.

His abstract stuff is particularly good. These two are just identified as "architectural drawings" when they popped up in this blog post from a friend who knew him personally.

In fact, that blog has some of the most interesting information available online about what Sternglass was like as a person. This anecdote, for instance:

"In 2006 Arno took me on a tour of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and showed me his favorite paintings. It was as if he were introducing all his old friends. He was surprisingly, endearingly inarticulate in explaining why he loved those paintings, but the love was clear. He could be be articulate on other matters - and he had a "GOD DAMN IT!" that left no doubt."

The same blogger has another great story about the illustration of a cafe that I used for the header image:

The scene is a cafe on Third Avenue in Manhattan where Arno and his wife Lila liked to eat. In exchange for some meals, Arno made this painting for the owner in 1971. The owner gave Arno more credit than he had expected. So — and this is typical Arno and Lila — they decided to celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary at the restaurant and invited 3 couples to join them. Lila says, "We all enjoyed a fine meal and drank a lot of wine."

The cafe is gone. Somehow, years later, the painting ended up in a damp box in a barn in New Hampshire where it had been collected — and hoarded — by a blind woman who liked to buy art work at yard sales. For a blind woman, she had a good eye.

Here's an interior illustration for an article titled "The Living Theatre," published in the March 1962 issue of Horizon. The original sold in 2014 for $50.

The baseball player in this August 1956 Esquire illustration is a real standout!

Link rot comes for artists first: This Jan 1962 Sports Illustrated article is still online, but Sternglass's illustrations are not, despite his credit sticking around. This November 1958 Esquire article is paywalled, but I can spot one of Sternglass's loose pen and ink drawings in the preview.

I wish I knew more about what type of style most of these illustrations use, with all the boldly liberated overlapping lines. I've seen similar stuff from this time period before. It really reminded me of the backgrounds in the 1961 101 Dalmations film, although after I looked them up I realized they're actually a lot cleaner than they were in my memories.

The loose line work feels a little like the jazz of commercial illustration. Perhaps not coincidentally, Sternglass did the covers for a few jazz-adjacent albums in the 60s. Here's his 1960 cover for Designs For Dancing, by Les Elgart And His Orchestra.

Here's a great 1959 cover Sternglass did for The Return, by Herbert Mitgang.

That's about it for the art and information about the artist online. My own blog post about the CONDEC report is already on the second page of results for his name. I'm happy to contribute to his online legacy.

Music rec: "Mario tunes in italo disco style"

Next Time: Red Cross, for real