Arthur Paul

As Playboy Magazine’s founding art director, Art Paul used his three decades there to revolutionize illustration. It’s said that no magazine art director has commissioned more illustrators, persuaded more artists to illustrate (Warhol, Dali, and Rosenquist among them) or won more honors in giving illustration the daring and integrity of fine art. Among artists and designers Art has mentored or worked with he’s an unusually beloved and revered father figure.

But Art is unique also in having been not just an art director and graphic designer (in particular of Playboy’s rabbit logo), but also an illustrator, fine artist, curator, writer, and composer.  And there’s been a surge of interest just now in both his past and present, with recent talks, books, and a documentary on him, exhibits of his art, and performances of his writing and music.  At 91, he’s now putting his drawings and writings into book form, with projects focused on race, aging, animals, and graphic whimsy.

Mentor

"In Art's relationship with artists, as an artist himself he had an innate empathy with them, and knew instinctively when to not restrict them. He gave artists his trust, in the way Hefner had trusted him. In doing so he allowed them the freedom to be honest, to be themselves, and to produce work with honesty and authenticity. With soul. As Art describes this relationship: 'What I provide is reinforcement and support for artists' personal vision; when artists sense this endorsement, they are comfortable doing their best work. It's a very trusting and warm relationship.'" –James Goggin, RISD + Practice

"When I first met Art I was barely out of high school, yet he treated me as if I had been a long time contributor. I later came to realize that because he respected himself, Art respected others. His treatment of the people he worked with showed that he cared as much for us as for our work, though the standards he set were high. Art Paul was the single most important art director in my career... evolving from client to father figure to friend, yet in each of these incarnations remaining the same person ........ From the beginning, Art was always gracious and encouraging. He gave me the room to experiment, to be inconsistent, room even to send in work that was different from what I had promised to send. In short, he gave me room to invent myself. I can't think of another magazine that would have allowed me that freedom. And there are scores of artists who could say the same. Art insisted on his own integrity, and because he did, he had the power to allow integrity in others. He gathered all of us under his umbrella and gave us the room to become artists. I was one of that first generation of artists who grew up wanting to paint for Playboy." –Brad Holland, artist

"Even long after Art's retirement party from Playboy, whenever we'd run into people who'd been art staff or who'd been commissioned by Art, I'd be struck by how they related to him, without exception treating him as a beloved and approachable father figure. Even artists who hadn't worked with him related to him not just as a design icon but with gratitude as someone who'd paved a way. I knew how they felt, having called upon Art with my portfolio long before we were eventually married in 1975, and found him to be as kind and helpful as over the years I heard artists describe him again and again ........ Cards made for Art and portraits drawn of him by those he worked with are a lively record of how people responded to him and how comfortable people feel with him. I do think it's no wonder, given how carefully he looked out for them." –Suzanne Seed, author, photographer, and wife of Arthur Paul