Robert Osborn
Illustrator
In their own words
This exploratory operation will be undocumented yet in its process we will see what over-weaning desire for money and comfort is doing to America … and understand, perhaps, why beats the heart so slowly and whence comes the silver slick cancer on the soul.
Articles & interviews3
- Steven Heller revisits archived letters from notable artists
Steven Heller reflects on sorting through more than 50 years of personal artifacts and deciding which materials to keep, donate, sell, or archive. He focuses on a file of correspondence from prominent artists and illustrators, whose handwritten letters evoke personal memories and document a pre-email era.
- Robert Osborn’s Satire Proves Greed and Mediocrity Never Change
Steven Heller revisits The Vulgarians, Robert Osborn's 1960 illustrated satire about greed, mediocrity and the corruption of American greatness. Heller argues that Osborn's acerbic political commentary remains strikingly relevant, while celebrating the artist's expressive drawing and wider range of satirical, commercial and book illustration.
- Ron Cobb: Sharp ’60s Cartoonist and Iconic Sci-Fi Film Designer
Steven Heller commemorates Ron Cobb as an influential Vietnam War- and Civil Rights-era alternative political cartoonist whose incisive, cross-hatched cartoons addressed militarism, police power, environmental destruction and social inequality. The article also notes Cobb's later career as a science-fiction film concept artist and announces Ron Cobb Ahead in the Clouds, a documentary about his life being made by filmmaker Rachel Lane and Broken Hill Films.