Harry Borgman elicits new reactions by coupling old-school illustration with major art movements creating art that is of all times
Art-making is a risky alchemical experiment that pits creative genius against the vagaries of fortune. Countless hours of practice and refinement over a lifetime may lead to the development of a significant style and work that expresses technical mastery, philosophical rigor, and aesthetic grace. Or that good effort may fall short of meeting the artist’s internalized critic or the approval of a broad viewership. Alas the rewards of the creative life are elusive in the hands of fate. It’s no wonder that the attrition rate among artists is so high. Harry Borgman is the exception that proves the rule.
A Precocious Start
Borgman began working in the commercial art field at the age of 15; he is still creating art more than 75 years later. Sharing his formula for success Borgman notes, “I am still learning. Art is a lifetime learning process that never ends.”
Borgman had shown prodigious talent while still attending high school in Detroit. He recalls, “I had a great art teacher named Margaret Stein who came from New York City and had commercial studio experience. She was in charge of producing the school’s yearbook and handled the project with her students like a professional assignment. I was given the job of art director. She was recommended to an engraving company to produce the book’s printing plates. But it was wartime and the artists that worked there had been drafted in the army, so they hired me. I worked every day after classes and on weekends. One day I would have to draw a cartoon, the next day I would be designing a brochure. It was pretty tough, but a great learning experience.”
His Big Break
After graduating from high school, Borgman received a scholarship to attend Detroit’s Society of Arts and Crafts (now the College for Creative Studies). Shortly after enrolling Borgman was offered a job at a new commercial studio started by an art director from his former employer. Having mixed feelings about the teachers he was studying with, Borgman dropped out of the art school to work at the new studio.
“I was hired to do graphic design, but I also got illustration assignments. My first big break came when I did a painting with a little red Ford in it. Ford Times, a travel publication produced by Ford Motor Company, purchased it and stated they would acquire every painting I did with the same little red car. My work was in Ford Times for the next five years. This exposure landed me illustration assignments with other Detroit art directors. This was a tough period; I received assignments that were beyond my abilities so I had to learn as I worked.”
The lucrative and image-rich advertising and print publication market in the 1950s and 1960s afforded Borgman a good living and a highly visible and challenging exhibition arena. Unbeknownst to Borgman, he was joining an important tradition in American art. Some of its most celebrated practitioners had made their living as commercial artists while developing their fine-art practices. Among them are Winslow Homer, Rockwell Kent, Charles E. Burchfield, and more recently Andy Warhol.
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