It is with a heavy heart that we acknowledge the passing of legendary New York illustrator, Brad Holland. According to our sources, he died on March 27 at 2 a.m. following heart surgery. He was 81 years old. 

Brad Holland was born in Fremont, Ohio, in 1943. After having his drawings (made while being a teenager) rejected by Walt Disney and The Saturday Evening Post, he would have moved to Chicago, spending a few years doing odd jobs and illustrating for Hallmark. However, it wasn’t until the later half of the 1960’s, when he moved to New York City to pursue life as a full-time freelance illustrator, that his career would really take off. Before long, he would be a regular contributor to magazines such as Playboy and The New York Times. His instantly recognizable artworks would later show up in other major publications such as Time, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, and many more. 

Art Director and author, Steven Heller, once said about Holland: “As Pollock redefined plastic art, Holland has radically changed the perception of illustration”. And it is through Heller that we get to learn more about not just the artist, but the person, as he recently shared his experiences with the New York icon in Print Magazine (partly lifted from his biography). “He once confided that he would either win or quit—there was no middle ground”. Heller, who had originally hired Holland to contribute to his magazine, would soon realize that he had found not only a unique, artistic talent but also a friend and a mentor. We highly recommend reading his full accounts following Holland’s passing in the link provided below.

As we grieve the loss of both a friend and a legend among the most influential illustrators this country has produced, we’d like to thank Brad Holland for how he contributed to our lives and inspired us all to be better artists and art appreciators. In so, we’d like to end with a quote from the man himself: 

“Every picture is just a piece of a whole. It’s kind of like the old cliché of the blind guys feeling the elephant. Every day you feel a new part of who you are” 

Rest in peace, Brad Holland.


Link: https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/the-daily-heller-mourning-for-brad-holland-stage-one/