Lot 182: MARK PODWAL ORIGINAL FUN CITY

Original Mark Podwal Pen & Ink Mixed Media Illustration / Drawing. The Statue of Liberty with a lung x-ray, smokestacks in the distance. The title is "Fun City" done in 1970 from Decline & Fall of the American Empire. The New York Times art director had selected this illustration piece from Podwal's book Decline, which represented the Statue of Liberty with a chest x-ray collaged to her thorax. But then, Podwal relates, the Pentagon Papers broke, and the Times op-ed page was dominated by responses to that news. “Although my Statue of Liberty drawing was never published in the Times, it was acquired by the Library of Congress after it was included in a bicentennial exhibition, The Image of America in Cartoon and Caricature” in 1976, Podwal says. Paul Simon also used the drawing to illustrate his song “American Tune.” (Podwal knew Simon from Queens College, where the two were in the fraternity AEPi. Although Simon had just graduated when Podwal entered as a freshman, Podwal pledged with Paul’s brother Eddie, with whom he remains good friends.) Excellent condition, in frame measures 17.50"x21.50"x.75". Weight 3 pds 5 oz. PROVENANCE: A Central Park West Private Estate. Mark Podwal (born June 8, 1945) is an artist, author, filmmaker and physician. He may be best known for his drawings on The New York Times OP-ED page. In addition, he is the author and illustrator of books for children as well as for adults. Beyond his works on paper, Podwals artistry has been employed in an array of diverse projects, including the design of a series of decorative plates for the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Passover Plate, Zodiac Platter (Met Bestseller), and Life Cycle (Met Bestseller). His work has been animated for public television in A Passover Seder with Elie Wiesel (Time Warner), engraved on a Congressional Gold Medal presented by President Reagan to Elie Wiesel, and woven into an Aubusson tapestry that adorns the ark in the main sanctuary of Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York. He also designed sixteen kiln cast glass panels for the United Jewish Appeal Federation Headquarters in New York. Podwal collaborated with Academy Award winning filmmaker Allan Miller on the documentary House of Life: The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, narrated by Claire Bloom. In 2009 and 2010, the film was broadcast on PBS. Podwal's portraits of Mozart in costumes from his operas were published as a boxed set of greeting cards by the Metropolitan Opera. In conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League, Podwal began The Jerusalem Sky Project, a program that fosters tolerance and awareness by bringing together young children from the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian communities. Participating religious schools study Podwal's Jerusalem Sky in their classrooms, and then encourage their students to illustrate their own depictions of Jerusalem. Amidst the learning, the children of each school write to or meet with their counterparts at a school of another faith and begin to learn about each other's religion and culture. After a few weeks, the program culminates with an exhibition of all of the drawings from each of the schools. At the opening of the exhibition, the children meet to enjoy each other's art and company. In a 2005 article called "Three Faiths, One Lesson", the New York Times covered the completion of the program at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, NY. The project has since also been carried out in Los Angeles, CA, and Binghamton, NY. Podwals work can be found in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Library of Congress, Yad Vashem, the Bodleian Library, the British Library, the Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University Library,[4] Columbia University, Hebrew University, and the National Library of Israel, among many others. 69MW5Y4

excellent