Purple Diary
[July 19 2011]
THE FIRST EXHIBITION OF TOM WOLFE’S ILLUSTRATIONS, rhode island
As one of the most famous voices from American counterculture of the Sixties and Seventies, the first ever exhibition of Tom Wolfe’s
works set his illustrations to focus as a lesser known part of his
work. Becoming a cult leading figure of the literary experiment that was
the New Journalism movement, with controversial classics such as The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, The Painted Word & The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,
Wolfe’s satirical accounts of modern life pervade through his pen and
ink drawings. As part of the exhibition, works from his monthly
illustrated series entitled ‘In Our Time‘ for Harper’s Bazaar in the
late Seventies and Eighties are showcased, depicting America’s capitalist caricatures, or The Seven Graces of New York according to Wolfe. Photo of The Seven Graces of New York: The Cabdriver (1980) by Tom Wolfe, ink on paper, courtesy of the National Museum of American Illustration.
Tom Wolfe, Author and Illustrator is on view at the National Museum of American Illustration through September 5, Vernon Court, 492 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island.
Text Sophie Pinchetti
