Tracy A. Sugarman (1921- )

Tracy A. Sugarman is a famous American illustrator who has had a long and provocative career in the arts. He boasts a career spanning over fifty years, producing great works within children's literature, album cover art, and socially progressive artistic statements. His work is featured in numerous children's books. Sugarman also highlighted life during World War II based on his own experiences there. He had served in the army in World War II and then turned his experiences to art. He also worked on major record covers, usually for Waldorf Music Hall Records; Sugarman created more than 100 covers. Many later albums and CDs still carried on the original designs in the decade of the 1950s alone. His work is also featured in major magazines such as Fortune and Esquire (Ask Art 2009)

During a period of great racial tension and segregation, Sugarman highlighted prominent Civil Rights leaders as primary subjects for sketch portraits. His portrait of Martin Luther King Jr....

(see Image B) is an amazing testament to his progressive thinking and contemporary eye for artistic expression. By highlighting such provocative African-American figures, Sugarman was helping give them and their message of equality exposure within the world of art and contemporary American culture. He was a pioneer in progressive social ideas favoring a greater sense of equality in the United States during an extremely tumultuous time.
Image A Coca Cola Ad by James Elliot Bama

http://americangallery.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/coca-cola.jpg

Image B "Martin Luther King Portrait"

http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Library_of_Congress_Tracy_Sugarman.html

References

Ask Art. "Tracy Sugarman -- Artist." The Artists' Bluebook. 2009. Retrieved 18 Nov 2009 at http://www.askart.com/askart/s/tracy_sugarman/tracy_sugarman.aspx

Smith, Thomas B. "James Bama." Buffalo Bill Historical Center. 2009. Retrieved 18 Nov 2009 at http://www.bbhc.org/wgwa/bama.cfm