40 years ago, the New York Times debuted a new page, the OP-ED or Opposite Editorial page, meant to be both physically and philosophically opposite the editorial page.
In choosing the art for this page, the editors wanted to step outside the customary range of editorial cartoons and find an opposing style there as well.
The result have been 40 years of striking, hard-hitting, though provoking and outside-the-box illustration.
There is a short (10 minute) video on the New York Times site, OP-ED at 40: Four Decades of Illustration, that explores the history of the illustration for the page, featuring multiple examples along with comments from both editors and artists.
There is a list on the page, below the video, of the artists whose work is featured, in the order of appearance.
The feature includes several artists I’ve written about here on Lines and Colors, including Brad Holland, Sam Weber, Al Hirschfeld, Ronald Searle and Maria Kalman.
One of those great, pivotal moments in the history of illustration. “All the Art That’s Fit to Print”, Jerelle Kraus, will always be on my favorite book list.