The Surrealism Website
Todd Schorr (1954 - )
Todd Schorr was born in New York City and grew up as a child in Oakland, New Jersey. Showing a compulsion
for drawing at an early age, his parents enrolled him in Saturday
morning art classes when he was five years old. Deeply affected by
fantasy movies such as the 1933 film classic King Kong and the
early animated cartoons of Walt Disney and Max Fleischer, their
influence along with comic books such as Mad would have a
lasting effect on Schorr’s developing visual vocabulary.
While visiting the Uffizi gallery in Italy on a trip to Europe in
the summer of 1970, Schorr began to formulate his idea of
combining his love of cartoons with the painting techniques of the
Old Masters. He entered the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of
The Arts) in 1972 wanting to be a painter but was advised by his
first year painting instructors that he would be better suited in the
illustration department.
Schorr began getting professional
illustration work while still in college, and soon after graduating in
1976, he moved to New York City where he provided work for a
wide variety of projects including album covers for AC/DC, movie
posters and covers for Time magazine.
By 1985 Schorr had become increasingly frustrated with the creative
restrictions imposed by commercial assignments and began to make
a concentrated effort to break away from ad agency halls and move
on to art gallery walls. Being invited to participate in the 1986
landmark exhibition American Pop Culture Images Today which
took place at the Laforet Museum in Tokyo, proved to be a
galvanizing experience. This launched him as a professional artist.
Todd Schorr website :- www.toddschorr.com
