Jon Gnagy
| Jon Gnagy | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 13, 1907 Pretty Prairie, Kansas |
| Died | March 7, 1981 (aged 74) Idyllwild, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | artist, teacher, TV personality, author |
| Known for | pioneering 1940s TV show teaching drawing and art |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Jo Hinton Gnagy |
| Children | Polly Gnagy Seymour Stephen Gnagy |
Jon Gnagy (January 13, 1907 – March 7, 1981) was a self-taught artist most remembered for being America's original television art instructor, hosting You Are an Artist, which began on the NBC network and included analysis of paintings from the Museum of Modern Art , and his later syndicated Learn to Draw series.
As of 1986, over fifteen million of Gnagy's drawing kits had been sold.
The Philadelphia-based Martin F. Weber Company still manufactures Gnagy's drawing kits.
Gnagy also worked on book illustrations including The Coit Fishing Pole Club Beginner's Book of Fishing and The Nature of Things
According to his 1947 instruction book, his TV program You Are an Artist "had at this writing by far the longest run of any program emanating from the NBC television studios." His biography, published in the catalogue of An Exhibition of Paintings and Litho-Drawings (Idyllwild, California, 1964), told of his early life:
During the early part of World War II, Gnagy taught camouflage techniques at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
On May 16, 1946, Jon Gnagy was the first "act" on the first television program broadcast from the antenna atop the Empire State Building. Gnagy pioneered drawing on television in the United States from the early 1950s throughout the 1960s on his program, Learn to Draw, and his popular art kits are still available.
His son-in-law, Thaddeus Seymour, was president of Rollins College from 1978-90.
Author and illustrator Richard Egielski, in the October 2011 issue of BookPage, described Gnagy as his childhood hero, writing, "I drew along with him every week."
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