Fortune magazine -part 4

Fortune is an American multinational business magazine headquartered in New York City. The publication was founded by Henry Luce in 1929. The magazine competes with Forbes and Bloomberg Businessweek in the national business magazine category and distinguishes itself with long, in-depth feature articles.

The magazine regularly publishes ranked lists, including the Fortune 500, a ranking of companies by revenue that it has published annually since 1955. The magazine is also known for its annual Fortune Investor’s Guide. 

At a time when business publications were little more than numbers and statistics printed in black and white, Fortune was an oversized 11”×14" using creamy heavy paper, and art on a cover printed by a special process. Fortune was also noted for its photography, featuring the work of Margaret Bourke-White, Ansel Adams, and others.

During the Great Depression, the magazine developed a reputation for its social conscience. From its launch in 1930 to 1978, Fortune was published monthly. In January 1978, it began publishing biweekly. In October 2009, citing declining advertising revenue and circulation, Fortune began publishing every three weeks. As of 2018, Fortune is published 14 times a year.

For earlier Fortune covers, see parts 1 - 3 also.

This is part 4 of 6-part series on Fortune magazine:

(Apologies for the inconsistency of caption fonts caused by glitches in the new program).

1944 December, cover by Loren MacIver

Loren MacIver (1909 - 1998) a New York City native, received her only formal training in the form of Saturday lessons at the Art Student’s League at the age of ten. At a time when gaining notoriety as a female artist was highly unusual, MacIver was able to find success in part because of the close circle of literati friends who advocated for her work, including her husband Lloyd Frankenberg, and friends Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, and e e cummings.

MacIver was successful early on in her career - in 1935 she became the first-ever female artist to be represented in the MoMa permanent collection, and in 1940, at the age of 30, Pierre Matisse began to represent her in his gallery. Her work was later exhibited in the American Pavilion at the 1962 Venice Biennale. She continued to show her work at major museums nationally and internationally until her death in 1998, at the age of 89.

1945 January, cover by Hans Moller

Hans Moller (1905 - 2000) was born on Wuppertal, Germany. From 1919 until 1927 Moller was an instructor at the Kunstgewerbeschule Wuppertal-Barmen an arts and crafts learning institution in the town. Next he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. In 1936 he emigrated to the united States from Germany to protect his Jewish wife from the Nazi regime. The first solo exhibition of his paintings was held in 1942 at the Bonestell Gallery in New York City. In the following twenty years or so he had some twenty-five solo exhibitions at various galleries.

1945 February, cover by Charles Howard
"The Western States"

Charles Howard (1899 - 1978) was born in Montclair, New Jersey. Howard graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1921 as a journalism major, and pursued graduate studies in English at Harvard and Columbia Universities before embarking on a two-year trip to Europe. He went as a would-be writer but near-religious experiences with European art persuaded him to become a painter. 

Howard was part of a group of American and European Surrealists clustered around Julien Levy. Levy opened his eponymously-named gallery in 1931, and rose to fame in January 1932, when he organised and hosted Surrealisme, the first ever exhibition of Surrealism in America, which included one work by Howard. In 1934 Howard married British painter Madge Knight and moved to London, England. Prior to the outbreak of WWII London was a centre for all types of international avant-garde artists. In 1934 Howard married British painter Madge Knight - they subsequently lived in the Bay Area, England again, and finally Italy.

1945 March, cover by Peter Piening
"Spain Today"

M. Peter Piening (1908 - 1977) born in Grabow, Germany, was a German-American graphic designer as well as professor of advertising design and director of the design centre at Syracuse University. Piening spent his early career freelancing as an illustrator and artist for various publishing companies, eventually settling in Paris to work for Conde-Nast's French publication of Vogue. In 1934 he moved to the United States to work in Conde-Nast's New York City office. For the next two decades, Piening worked for many important advertising agencies and magazine publishers, including the N. W. Ayer and J. Walker Thompson agencies and Life and Fortune magazines. As art director for Life in the 1930s and for Fortune in the 1940s, Piening completely redesigned the layout of each magazine. He also redesigned the layouts for thirty-four other major American magazines, including Town & Country and Cosmopolitan.

1945 April, cover by Ralston Crawford
"Air Transport"

Ralston Crawford (1906 - 1978) was born in St. Catherines, Ontario. He studied art beginning in 1927 in California at the Otis Art Institute. After working at the Walt Disney Studio, he returned to the eastern U.S. for further study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and at the Barnes Foundation, where he was exposed to the art of Picasso and Matisse. In 1934, he had his first one-man showing at the Maryland Institute college of Art. Crawford was best known for his abstract representations of urban life and industry. His early work placed him with Precisionist artists like Niles Spencer and Charles Sheeler. 

1945 May, cover by Peter Piening
"Middle East Oil"

1945 June, cover by Antonio Petruccelli
(WWII theme)

1945 August, cover by Alexander Semenoick
"The New Locomotives"

1945 September, cover by Peter Piening
Victory in Europe theme

1945 October, cover by Ralston Crawford
"Radar"

Ralston Crawford (1906 - 1978) was born in St. Catherines, Ontario. He studied art beginning in 1927 in California at the Otis Art Institute. After working at the Walt Disney Studio, he returned to the eastern U.S. for further study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and at the Barnes Foundation, where he was exposed to the art of Picasso and Matisse. In 1934, he had his first one-man showing at the Maryland Institute college of Art. Crawford was best known for his abstract representations of urban life and industry. His early work placed him with Precisionist artists like Niles Spencer and Charles Sheeler. 

1945 November, cover by E. McKnight Kauffer
 "Foreign Trade"

Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890 – 1954) born in Great Falls, Montana, he was an American artist and graphic designer who lived for much of his life in the United Kingdom. He worked mainly in poster art, but was also active as a painter, book and theatre designer. In 1912-13 and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. in 1913-14 he studied at the Académie Moderne in Paris. In Paris in 1923 he met the textile designer Marion Dorn, and subsequently lived with her in London, from late 1923 to July 1940. They married in 1950 and moved to New York until his death in 1954. Kauffer may be best known for the 140 posters that he produced for London Underground, and later London Transport. 

Note: A series on the works of E. McKnight Kauffer can be found in the index of this blog.

1945 12 December cover by Alex Steinweiss
 "Department Store"

Alex Steinweiss (1917 - 2011) played a seminal role in record cover design as the Art Director for Columbia Records, as well as other record companies - London, Decca and A&R Records. He also worked for clients including National Distillery, Schenly Distributors, as well as "Print" and "Fortune" magazines.

When Steinweiss was appointed as art director at Columbia Records in 1938, there was no such thing as a record sleeve. Within a year of starting his new job he persuaded his bosses to invest $250,000 in the equipment needed to print on record packaging. No longer would records come in plain brown wrappers. Steinweiss created the ‘album package.’ It was an instant success, and created an entirely new field of illustration and design in the form of Album Cover Art.

Note: A series on the works of Alex Steinweiss can be found in the index of this blog.

1946 March, cover by Ferran Texidor
"World Rubber"

1946 April, cover by Lester Beall
"Housing"

Lester Beall (1903 - 1969) was born in Kansas City, Missouri. His family soon moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and later to Chicago, Illinois. Beall studied at the University of Chicago. After a short period of experimentation and professional work in Chicago, hemoved to New York in 1935. Through the 1930s and 1940s Beall produced innovative and highly regarded work for clients including the Chicago Tribune, Sterling Engraving, The Art Directors Club of New York, Hiram Walker, Abbott Laboratories,and Time magazine and Colliers magazine. His clear and concise use of typography was highly praised both in the United States and abroad. Throughout his career he used bold primary colours and illustrative arrows and lines in a graphic style that became easily recognisable as his own. He eventually moved to rural New York and set up an office, and home, at a premises that he and his family called "Dumbarton Farm". He remained at the farm until his death in 1969.

1946 May cover by Hananiah Harari
"Aluminum Reborn"

Hananiah Harari (1912 - 2000) was born in Rochester, New York. He studied at the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, and from 1930 to 1932 at the School of Fine Arts, Syracuse University, where he was exposed to modernism. In 1932 he left for Paris and worked with André Lhote and Fernand Léger. He held his first solo show at the American Club in Paris in 1933. In 1934 Harari moved to Cagnes-sur-Mer, the artists' colony on the French Riviera, where he stayed in Chaim Soutine's former studio, before travelling to Palestine with his friend, the sculptor Herzl Emanuel. Following his return to America in 1935, he married Herzl's sister and settled in New York. 

In 1936 he joined the Mural Project of the New York City WPA/FAP, working under Burgoyne Diller and remaining with the WPA/FAP until 1942. He was a founding member of the group, American Abstract Artists, from 1936 until 1943. From the mid-1930s Harari used an abstract style which also incorporated recognisable elements.

1946 June, cover by Arthur Lidov
"Fundamental Science"

Arthur Herschel Lidov (1917 - 1990) was born in Chicago and earned a degree in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 1936 and was a Graduate Fellow in Art History in 1938 and 1939. As an artist, Lidov was largely self-taught, specialising in scientific and technical graphics. Lidov created the cover art for the 1950 first edition copy of  The Martian Chronicle by Ray Bradbury. He contributed artistic backgrounds to many of the major magazines of his time such as Time, Fortune, The Saturday Evening Post and other special-interest magazines.

1946 July, cover by Ladislav Sutnar
"The U.S. Foreign Policy"

Ladislav Sutnar (1897 - 1976) was born in Plzen, Czechoslovakia. He studied painting at the School of Apple Arts in Prague, architecture at Charles University, and mathematics at the Czech Technical University. Post graduation, Sutnar worked on wooden toys, puppets, costumes, and stage design. Also, he contributed to exhibition design as well as teaching and the design of magazines, books, porcelain products and textiles. He taught at the State School of Graphic Arts, Prague, from 1923 to 1936. In Europe, he gained recognition for typography and exhibition design.

1946 August, cover by Antonio Ruiz
"New Hemisphere Policy"

Antonio M. Ruiz (1892 - 1964) was born in Texcoco, Mexico. He studied architecture and painting at the Academy of San Carlos, now the NationalSchool of Arts. He also studied at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Arts and the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria. After initially being influenced by his tutors he later drew on inspiration from Flemish artists and Miguel Covarrubias (Covarrubias also features in this series). He also delved into some surrealism at one point, showed by his involvement in the Mexican International Surrealist Exhibition of 1940. Ruiz held many exhibitions in the United States - his exhibits in New York include the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), the Valentine Gallery, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

1946 September; cover by Arthur Lidov
"A New Scale of Sky Speeds"

Arthur Herschel Lidov (1917 - 1990) was born in Chicago and earned a degree in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 1936 and was a Graduate Fellow in Art History in 1938 and 1939. As an artist, Lidov was largely self-taught, specialising in scientific and technical graphics. Lidov created the cover art for the 1950 first edition copy of  The Martian Chronicle by Ray Bradbury. He contributed artistic backgrounds to many of the major magazines of his time such as Time, Fortune, The Saturday Evening Post and other special-interest magazines.

1946 October, cover by Jacob Lawrence "American Gold Rush"

Jacob Armstead Lawrence (1917 - 2000) was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He was an American painter known for his portrayal of African-American historical subjects and contemporary life. Lawrence is among the best-known twentieth-century African-American painters, known for his modernist illustrations of everyday life as well as narratives of African-American history and historical figures. At the age of 23 he gained national recognition with his 60-panel The Migration Series, which depicted the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North. The series was purchased jointly by the Phillips Collection  in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.  Lawrence's works are in the permanent collections of numerous museums, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, Reynolda House Museum of American Art and the Museum of Northwest Art. His 1947 painting The Builders hangs in the White House. 

1946 December, cover by Alvin Lustig

Alvin Lustig (1915 - 1955) was born in Denver, Colorado. He was a book designer, graphic designer, and typeface designer. Lustig has been honoured by the American Institute of GRaphic Arts and the `Art Directors club Hall of Fame for his significant contributions to American design. He studied design at Los Angeles City College, Art Centre College of Design, and independently with architect Frank Lloyd Wright at his Taliesin studio, and French painter Jean Charlot. He began his career designing book jackets in 1937 in Los Angeles, California. In 1944 he became Director of Visual Research for Look Magazine. He also designed for Fortune, and Girl Scouts of the United States.

1947 February, cover by Dong Kingman
"Two U.S. Cities"

Dong Kingman (1911 - 2000) was born in Oakland, CA. Studied: Ling Nan School (Hong Kong); Member; National Academy of Design, American Watercolour Society, California Watercolour Society. While still a child Kingman returned with his parents to China. There, Kingman received art instruction from traditional Chinese watercolorists and Size-To-Wai, a Paris-educated artist who was very knowledgeable about modern art trends. In 1929, Kingman moved back to San Francisco and started producing watercolour paintings depicting Bay Area cityscape subjects. In 1942, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship which enabled him to travel around the United States painting watercolours of American scene subjects. Between 1945 and 1965, he painted a large number of outstanding cityscape watercolours of New York City and San Francisco. He also did covers for Fortune and as article illustrations inside the magazine. Life, Time, Westways, and numerous other magazines.

1947 March, cover by Matthew Leibowitz  
"Coal is what we make it"

Matthew Leibowitz (1918 - 1974) was born in Philadelphia. He studied at night in the certificate programme at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art. From 1942 he art directed and consulted for several firms including IBM, RCA Victor, Sharp and Dohme, Spalding, Container Corporation of America, General Electric, N. W. Ayer and Son, The International Red Cross and others. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Denver Art Museum and the Musee National d’Art Museum, Paris. Between 1941 and 1959 he received 163 gold medals and other awards.

1947 June, cover by Walter Murch
"Fine Chemicals"

Walter Tandy Murch (1907 - 1967) was born in Toronto, Ontario.  He attended the Ontario College of Art  in the mid-1920s, studying under Arthur Lismer, a member of the Group of Seven, a group of Impressionist/Post Impressionist painters mostly active from 1910 to 1940. Murch moved to New York City in 1927 and studied at the Art Students League of New York In 1941 Betty Parsons held Murch's first one-man exhibition at the Wakefield Gallery, New York City. 

Murch's style remains difficult to classify, although he has been variously described as a Magic Realist, Surrealist, Romantic Realist or just plain Realist.

1947 August, cover by Ben Shahn
"Italy"

Ben Shahn (1898 - 1969) was born in Kaunas, Lithuania. The family emigrated to New York in 1906. Shahn attended New York University as a biology student in 1919, he went on to pursue art at City College in 1921 and then at the National Academy of Design. He was a member of the Social Realist movement. His expressive figurative paintings, murals, and posters were inexorably tied to his pursuit of social justice and lifelong activism within leftist political beliefs. He assisted  Diego Rivera in 1933 for the painting of his Man at the Crossroads fresco in Rockefeller Centre. Shahn’s works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others.

1947 September, cover by Arthur Lidov

1947 October, cover by Edmund Lewandowski "Boom on the Farm"

Edmund Lewandowski (1914 - 1998) was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended the Layton School of Art from 1931 to 1934. He assumed a public school teaching position to make a living while he pursued painting on his own and sought commissions in advertising and magazine illustration. In 1936, he was invited by prominent modern art dealer Edith Halpert art dealer to join her Downtown Gallery. That same year, he began painting murals commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts of the Federal Art Project and during 1939 and 1940 executed murals for the post office in Caledonia, MN. From 1942 to 1946, Lewandowski made maps and camouflage for the United States Army Air Forces and United States Air Force. In 1947, he was appointed to the faculty of the Layton School of Art. The otherworldly clarity of Lewandowski's work won him inclusion in a show themed around Magic Realism at the Museum of Modern Art in 1943.

1947 November, cover by Hans Moller
"Meeting the Market"

1947 12 December
"Madison Avenue N.Y.C."

1948 January, cover by Walter Murch
(Time theme)

Walter Tandy Murch (1907 - 1967) was born in Toronto, Ontario.  He attended the Ontario College of Art  in the mid-1920s, studying under Arthur Lismer, a member of the Group of Seven, a group of Impressionist/Post Impressionist painters mostly active from 1910 to 1940. Murch moved to New York City in 1927 and studied at the Art Students League of New York In 1941 Betty Parsons held Murch's first one-man exhibition at the Wakefield Gallery, New York City. 

Murch's style remains difficult to classify, although he has been variously described as a Magic Realist, Surrealist, Romantic Realist or just plain Realist.

1948 February, cover by Hans Moller
"Miami, Florida"

1948 March, cover by Edmund Lewandowski
 "Diesels for the Upgrade"

1948 April, cover by Arthur Lidov
"Money and Inflation"

1948 May, cover by George Giusti
"The Tools of Synthetics"

George Giusti (1908 - 1990) was born in Milan, Italy. He studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan and did graphic design there before deciding to move to Zürich, Switzerland, where he opened a design studio, which he operated for seven years. While on a visit to the United States in 1938, Giusti was induced to stay by the several excellent commissions that were offered to him, including the opportunity to collaborate with Herbet Matter on the design of the Swiss pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Giusti is well known in Europe and America for his architecture and sculpture, as well as his graphics. Over the years, Giusti garnered more than ten gold and silver medals and eighty other awards and citations.

1948 June, 1948 cover by Arthur Lidov

1948 August, cover by Hans Barschel
"Automobile Design"

1948 September, cover by Herbert Matter
 "Television: Image in Translation"

Herbert Matter (1907 - 1984) was a Swiss-born American photographer and graphic designer known for his innovative use of photomontage in posters. Matter also photographed the unique personalities of his friends Alexander Calder and Alberto Giacometti at work in their studios. Born in Engelberg, Switzerland, he went on to study painting under Fernand Leger and Amédée Ozenfant in Paris, before working as an assistant to the famed architect Le Corbusier. During the early 1930s, Matter established his career in design with the posters he created for the Swiss National Tourist Office. Moving to New York in 1936, the artist worked as a freelance photographer for a number of magazines including Vogue, before being signed exclusively by Condé Nast. In the decades that followed, Matter took on many roles, including working as a design consultant for both the furniture company Knoll and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

1948 October, cover by Edmund Lewandowski
 "Farm mechanization has just begun"

1948 December, cover by Edmund Lewandowski
 "Stirrings in Steelmaking"

1949 January, cover by Arthur Lidov
(Woodpulp theme)

1949 February, cover by George Giusti
"ECA: How Good a Buy?"

1949 March, cover by Arthur Lidov
"American Men of Shipping"

1949 April, cover by Thomas Francioli
"Land of the New Haven Road"

1949 May. cover by Arthur Lidov
"California Cotton"

1949 June, cover by Stephen Greene
"Industrial Los Angeles"

Stephen Greene (1917 - 1999) was born in New York City. He attended the National Academy School of Art and then the Art Students League, and earned a BFA and a MA at the University of Iowa. He studied with Philip Guston, and they remained friends until Guston's death in 1980. Greene taught at Princeton University for many years where he was teacher to many well-known figures in the art world including Frank Stella. Greene had more than two dozen solo exhibitions of his work in leading art galleries in New York City. He also taught at the Art Students League of New York for several decades. After the mid-1950s and until his death Greene's mature work was related to abstract expressionism, colour field painting, and Surrealism. His works are represented in numerous national and international art museums.

1949 July

1949 July, Advertisement for The United States Printing and Lithograph Company

1949 July, Advertisement for Mathieson Chemicals

1949 August, cover by Robert Gwathmey  
"Missouri Valley: Frontier Again"

Robert Gwathmey (1803 - 1988) was an American social realist painter. After initially studying in business, he later studied a year at the Maryland Institute of Design in Baltimore, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Throughout his studies Gwathmey was influenced by many artists including Picasso, Matisse, and Vincent van Gogh, french satirist Honoré Daumier, Millet, and Degas. Gwathmey is known for simplifying compositions and using symbolic abstraction to create his messages. His style is recognised by the colour, shapes, and figures he uses in his artwork.

1949 August, Advertisement for Champion Papers

1949 September, cover by Ben Shahn  
"Detroit - No Downturn?"

1949 October, cover by Walter Murch
"The Modern Art of Printing"

1949 November, cover by Dong Kingman  
"U.S. Roads: Construction Ahead"

1949 December, cover by De Diego

Julio de Diego (1900 – 1979) born in Madrid, was a Spanish-born American visual artist. In 1924 Diego immigrated to the United States. He found work as a commercial artist, drawing fashion illustrations. In 1926 he started to focus more on painting, and began to garner awards; he also moved to Chicago at this time where he first exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1929, where he also had a one-man exhibition in 1935. He moved, this time to Mexico, where he collected native artifacts and took inspiration from the muralist Carlos Mérida. During World War II he supported the American Artist’s Congress which was fighting censorship in Germany and Italy and before it was in opposition against General Franco. After the war he taught at the University of Denver and the Artist Equity Workshop. Later on he settled in Sarasota, Florida.