Anthony Russell (N/A) Contemporary,
Birthplace/Origin: N/A
Biography/Statement:
Anthony Russell was born in London and graduated with a degree in
graphic design from Hornsey College of Art. This was an institution with a
very broad range of disciplines in the graphic and fine arts. He studied
drawing, lithography, etching, typography, painting and sculpture. Between
studies, Tony worked as a sign painter, silk screen printer and early morning
milk deliveryman. He spent one summer working, Michelangelo-like, as part
of a team repainting the ceiling of the main hall of Horace Walpole’s
Strawberry Hill House. One time he was ignominiously rejected as a Paint-by-
Numbers demonstrator at a trade fair in Earl’s Court. He was also an avid
weekend cyclist, competing in local road races and touring England and
France.
He served in the Royal Engineers for two years as mandated at that time
(you would not consider him a military man). As part of a mobile map making
squadron in Germany, he continued to draw and paint and traveled
extensively throughout Europe when time permitted. Back home and after
three years of freelance designing and teaching, he was married to his wife,
Jean. David Hockney also taught briefly at the same art college in Maidstone,
Kent.
Tony then emigrated to the New York. After a period of freelancing, he
founded Russell Design, an award-winning design firm, with a roster
of clients that included corporations, cultural institutions and non-profits,
both domestic and international. He became president of the American
Institute of Graphic Arts, promoting the profession while increasing the
membership from a small group of New Yorkers into a national organization
that today has a membership of over 25,000 designers and educators. He
taught design at NYU and Cooper Union.
In 2008, his company became the branding and environmental graphics
associate of Perkins Eastman, New York’s largest architectural firm.
On retiring in 2020, he built a studio in the roof of his 1836 Captain’s House
in in historic South Jamesport on the North Fork of Long Island. This is a
permanent residence although the Russells also maintain a
New York City apartment. After a long and successful career as a graphic
designer, Tony now considers himself a full-time artist dedicated to painting,
drawing and practicing photography in earnest. As you look at his work, his
painting influences are obvious although when questioned, he would give
special thanks to Juan Gris for his most inventive Cubism; to Georges Braque
for his quiet lyricism while Señor P did his fireworks; to Stuart Davis for his
use of signs and typography in painting; to
Ron Kitaj for his evocative mix of figurative and abstraction and lastly,
especially to David Hockney for his marvelous drawings, printmaking and for
killing one point perspective.