Maris Bishofs, Latvian Israeli Surreal Gouache Illustration Art Painting Tel Aviv, 1979

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Maris Bishofs was born in 1939 in Rujiena, Latvia. In 1965 he became the first artist to graduate from the … Read more Maris Bishofs was born in 1939 in Rujiena, Latvia. In 1965 he became the first artist to graduate from the Latvian Art Academy with an interior design diploma. In 1972 he emigrated to Israel, then lived in Paris in the early 1980's, then New York, then in 2003 returned permanently to Latvia. His successful career as an illustrator spans nearly forty years with ten books written about him. His sardonic cartoon work has been seen on the covers of such high profile periodicals as The New Yorker magazine. Bishofs is an illustrator whose impressions of New York life in particular and American life in general are summarized in thin general are summarized in the peculiarly serious, puzzling, but very funny cartoons. His recent book purports to be entries from the diaries of an extraterrestrial female who looks a little like an ant. There are also drawings that obliquely suggest the alienation and over-mechanization of modern life. He emigrated to Israel in 1972 and lived in Paris in the early 80s, stayed in New York between 1984 and 2003. In 2003 he returned to live in Lithuania. His work bears elements of surrealism ala Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte and also influences of the Belgian illustrator Jean Michel Folon.
His drawings and illustration art have been published in Time Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Nation, Village Voice, Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Barron's 9s, Hippocrates, and Harper's. They were published in the Lithuanian magazines Dadzis (1963-1966) and Rigas laiks (2001-2003), as well as in the Diena newspaper (2002-2004). See less