Joel Resnicoff

Joel Hirsch Resnicoff (October 23, 1948 – December 28, 1986) was an American artist and fashion illustrator, who incorporated expressionistic art into commercial fashion illustrations, stating his belief that "commercial art is the art of the century." His work did not fit easily into any one category, and "the figures in his amusing illustrations defy stereotype and are posed in unexpected ways." Those figures reflected a mixture of cultures, with viewers seeing something familiar to their own background, mixed with something more distant: a combination of the "girl next door," and "the girl on the other side of the world." So, for example, a Japanese work describes "the influence of black African sculptures," mixed with a more Japanese look characterized by "lips like cherry blossom petals, and almond-shaped eyes." His work captured the new impact of multiculturalism on art and the "standards of beauty" of the seventies, and along with artists such as Andy Warhol helped "blur the line between commercial art and fine art."

Resnicoff died at the age of 38 as a result of complications linked to AIDS.

Joel Resnicoff was born in Washington, DC, and raised in Hyattsville, Maryland. He studied art at the University of Miami for one year, and then transferred to Greenwich Village's Parsons School of Design, settling in Manhattan's East Village. After two years at Parsons, he worked as a fashion illustrator for seven years on the staff of Women's Wear Daily (WWD), the trade journal often referred to as the Bible of fashion , where illustrations were used more as commentaries on fashion and predictions of consumer reaction than as a means to advertise and sell products to consumers.

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