OFF-BROADWAY ARTIST EXTRAORDINAIRE
Check out the SCHMIDTACULAR Sketchbook drawings of the talented Artist + Musican,
HARVEY SCHMIDT
ARTIST + MUSICIAN
b 1929-2018
Schmidt’s drawings & Illo’s harken back to that killer mid century era of gritty honest draughtsmanship + linework + moody master works of such illustrators, David Passalacqua, Robert Weaver, and Tom Sgouros, all who whom took the path of teaching at school's like Pratt, Parson’s and RISD. Harvey on the other hand, decided to split his time between art + music & the big lights of Broadway.
Many of these are his "on-set" drawings during his time at NBC studios.
-E.L.
ABOUT
HARVEY SCHMIDT was born in Dallas, Texas in 1929. Along with being an amazing Illustrator and Designer, Schmidt was also an accomplished musician + composer. He co-wrote (w/ his long time friend Tom Jones) and performed all the musical scores for several off-broadway musicals, including their most famous 1960 hit, "THE FANTASTICS” which ran for 42 years, making it the longest running off-broadway musical of all time. Harvey graduated from University of Texas, with a B.F.A. in 1952 and quickly landed a job in Houston as a layout artist for the Sakowitz department store as a well as an artist for the Houston Post. Neither assignment would last long, however, because Uncle Sam called Schmidt up for duty on Christmas day, 1952. Stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Schmidt, having checked off 'artist' on his army induction questionnaire was assigned... to paint signs. "The army dignified me with the title 'Director of Training Aids,'" recalled Schmidt, "and I became a part-time creator of latrine signs. For two years I blanketed Fort Bliss with all kinds of neatly lettered admonitions. This novel discipline taught me more about lettering than I had ever learned in school.” What Schmidt learned about lettering in the army served him well when he finished his service and decided to try finding work in New York. Edward J. Bennett, director of the graphic design department at NBC television took one look through Harvey Schmidt's portfolio and hired him on the spot. One early assignment, done in competition with the rest of the graphic design dept. staff, was a title illustration for an NBC production of "Alice in Wonderland." Schmidt's design won. Many more TV show title cards followed and soon his boss, Ed Bennet would state, "Harvey quickly developed into one of our outstanding designer-illustrators and almost immediately created a style that was unique in the department and highly suited to television reproduction. Within a year or so, every artist in the department learned to recognize every illustration and word of lettering that Harvey had done. They were fast becoming identifiable with the artist." Schmidt said he was very glad for his television title card experience because it taught him to "remove a lot of nonessentials from my work" and "the importance of conveying a visual idea as straightforwardly as possible." It must have also taught him to think fast and work fast. Schmidt described a typical work day, when he wasn't working on advance assignments: "I stood by on call, usually at the barn-like Brooklyn studio, in case a special title might be needed. In moments of relative calm between these deadline emergencies I used to play the piano in the unused studio where I worked. Then suddenly the word came down for a title to be used in ten minutes, and I'd start painting like mad - usually on the bare floor - getting as much dirt as pigment into the job."
"Somehow, these were always my best efforts”
-H.S.
Here's a few of Schmidt's mid 60's Illustrations for various publications, including Life and Sports Illustrated,
"When I start a picture I like to finish it on the spot…in one sitting if possible. So I work quickly, and if it’s not right I begin again. I use different media, but usually I draw with grease pencil and paint over it with tempera. There is no difference of feeling for me doing a painting or a commercial illustration, design or type…like an album cover for example. It’s all art, and it’s all exciting to do. I don't feel for myself a division between 'fine art' and other art. I think of myself as a reporter rather than a painter... art for me is simply contact with people, evoking a response from people. The things I like most myself nearly always seem to communicate most successfully to others. I never try to make people understand. I just do the best I can.
— Harvey Schmidt
"Harvey Schmidt’s musical success is a sideline. To us, he is a painter.”
— LIFE Magazine, 1969
Original vs. in print
