EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 21 © 2017 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

38 1940s and ’50s, though he claimed he did around 200). He illustrated scenes from American life, with the tongue firmly in cheek, and showed us baseball games with grumpy umpires, mobile homes in trailer parks with plastic pink flamingos on the front yard, lonely gas stations where not only the car’s tires are inflated but a child’s beach toy as well, consumers caught during a rainy day while going to the local food market, vacationers visiting a lonely coastal post office to buy postcards and even the occasional landscape painting, cars stuck bumper to bumper in never-ending roads while vacationing, children playing with their toys inside cardboard boxes or empty barns, and of course teenagers with their hot rods and Harley Davidsons. Subject matters aside, Dohanos was also a proponent of the “social realism” school of artists, citing both Edward Hopper and Grant Wood as his greatest influences. Born on May 18, 1907 in Lorain, Ohio, being the third of nine children from a family of Hungarian immigrants, Dohanos grew up in a mid western steel town that would exert a considerable influence on his subsequent development, and underpinned both his artistic sensibilities as well as the wry sense of humour that added an extra dimension to his art. As a child he was a great admirer of Norman Rockwell, even copying his covers in crayon and selling them to friends, relatives, and co-workers, hardly suspecting that he would also follow in his footsteps illustrating covers for the Post . His formal education began by taking correspondence classes through the International Correspondence School, and afterwards he took night classes at the Cleveland School of Arts (more of a dance and music school than an actual art school). Nevertheless, it was through his experience as a sign and ABOVE: The Place Beneath #2 , gouache on board, 13” x 21.25”. Story illustration, date and publication unknown. While a considerably simple scene, Dohanos would add small elements and details that seem rather insignificant, but draws the viewer into believing the actual setting. BELOW: World War II Propaganda ( U.S. Government Printing Office ), 1944. 20” x 26” propaganda poster. During the war Dohanos did many illustrations such as this for the government. Imaged by Heritage Auctions, HA.com Imaged by Heritage Auctions, HA.com