Robert Weaver was an American illustrator who was considered the pioneer of a contemporary approach to the field that began in the 1950s. Beginning in 1952, he embarked on a mission to combine the visual ideas found in fine art with the responsibility of journalist. At the time, most practitioners of illustration were expected to paint and draw for advertising and magazine assignments with artwork that was conservative, idealized and saccharine. Rarely was the artist called upon to inject their own opinion into the matter. Weaver reacted by moving his role of an illustrator from a page decorator to a journalist. He ventured from the typical haven of an illustrator's studio into the world and used a pencil to observe, record facts, and draw real life based visual essays. This approach would later be termed "visual journalism

Visual journalism

Visual journalism is the practice of strategically combining words and images to convey information.-Universal:Visual journalism is premised upon the idea that at a time of accelerating change, often words cannot keep pace with concepts. Visual journalism incorporates ancient symbols that resonate...

" and in 1983 would form the basis of a special masters degree, Illustration as Visual Essay, from the School of Visual Arts

School of Visual Arts

The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...

 in New York.

In an article for the AIGA in 1990, noted graphic art historian Steve Heller

Steven Heller (graphic design)

Steven Heller is an American art director, journalist, critic, author, and editor who specializes on topics related to graphic design....

 categorized Weaver as a journalistic illustrator. Other artists included Bob Gill

Bob Gill (artist)

Bob Gill , American illustrator and graphic designer. He played the piano at summer resorts in the Catskill Mountains, New York, to pay his school tuition. He attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Art , Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts , City College of New York...

, Jack Beck, Robert Andrew Parker, Thomas B. Allen

Thomas B. Allen

Thomas B. Allen was an American painter and illustrator known for a moody and expressionist style that pushed the boundaries of commercial art in the 1950s and 60s...

 and Philip Hays

Philip Hays

Born in Sherman, Texas in 1930, Phil grew up in Louisiana, served in the Air Force and in 1952 enrolled at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. After graduating in 1955, Hays moved to New York. Almost overnight he became a top illustrator creating romantic illustrations for magazines like...

. They received crucial assignments from a group of visionary art directors that included Cipe Pineles, Leo Lionni

Leo Lionni

Leo Lionni was an author and illustrator of children's books. Born in Holland, he moved to Italy and lived there before moving to the United States in 1939, where he worked as an art director for several advertising agencies, and then for Fortune magazine. He returned to Italy in 1962 and started...

, Otto Storch and Henry Wolf

Henry Wolf

Henry Wolf was an Austrian-born American graphic designer, photographer and art director best known for his art direction of Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, and Show magazines in the 1950s and '60s.- Life and work :...

.

For 5 decades, Weaver created work for clients such as Esquire

Esquire (magazine)

Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...

, Fortune

Fortune (magazine)

Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...

, Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...

, Life

Life (magazine)

Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....

, Look

Look (American magazine)

Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...

, The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

and Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

. These patrons allowed him to cover stories with the same mission afforded a photojournalist, such as the time he covered John F. Kennedy's campaign.

Known for bringing the narrative qualities of cinematic storytelling to his profession, Weaver once said, "Life is not a single snapshot, it is a series of events that are chain linked and proceed frame by frame."

Sources

• A Master of Change by Steven Heller, 1990, AIGA article on Paul Davis
• Exhibition essay, Seeing Is Not Believing: Norman Rockwell
  Norman Rockwell
  Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
  
  Museum

External links

• Art Directors Club biography and portrait
• http://www.graphicwitness.org/ineye/weaver.htm
• Robert Weaver Collection, Modern Graphic History Library

Quotes:
"To fiction illustration the illustrator should bring the accuracy of journalism, to journalism the drama of fiction, and to editorial illustration the contradictions of reality."
Robert Weaver, 1979