A new exhibition at the Brandywine Museum of Art in Chadds Ford showcases the work of New Yorker cartoonist Barbara Shermund, writes Peter Crimmins for the WHYY.
The exhibit, Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Art and Life of Barbara Shermund, shares its title with curator Caitlin McGurk’s newly published biography.
Shermund started contributing to the New Yorker at age 26, shortly after the magazine’s launch on Feb. 1, 1925. She began by doodling marginalia but over the next 19 years, she made nine cover illustrations and around 600 cartoons.
The cartoonist epitomized the liberated flapper girl of the 1920s, both in life and art. Most of her works feature women navigating the world with sharp wit and impeccable style.
According to McGurk, Shermund was the perfect artist to help founding editors Harold Ross and Jane Grant make the kind of magazine they had in mind.
“Their thought initially was an audience of New Yorkers, but it occurred to them that there were people all over the world with a metropolitan mindset. Barbara was one that really nailed it from the jump” said McGurk.
Read more about the exhibition of New Yorker cartoonist Barbara Shermund in the WHYY.
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