Hirschfeld Celebrity Auction for Broadway Cares and The Hirschfeld Foundation

Posted on November 12, 2022 by Alix Cohen in Playing Around

In Partnership with Heritage Auctions

Joel Grey; Sunday in the Park with George signed by Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin

There was and will always be only one Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003). After studying in London and Paris, the artist landed in New York. A commission at the New York Herald Tribune began exposure that lead to steady work with The New York Times. The newspaper would eventually feature his crow quill theater drawings on every Sunday Arts section cover over seven decades. Many of us grew up counting Ninas hidden in the iconic art (the written name of his daughter with second wife Dorothy Haas). To be drawn by Hirschfeld was a badge of recognition and legitimacy.

Judi Dench; Michael Feinstein

The artist is most often called a “caricaturist.” Merriam Webster defines the word as exaggeration by means of often ludicrous distortion of parts or characteristics. There was sometimes humor, but never malice in Hirschfeld’s work. The skill and creativity with which he captured essences was a kind of visual poetry. Michelangelo said, “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” Hirschfeld cut away everything unnecessary to reveal a figure’s core elements.

Meryl Streep; Nathan Lane

Continuing until almost the end of his life, working for magazines, film companies, books, even creating a series of postage stamps, Al Hirschfeld would chronicle every important figure in the 20th century.

Twenty one limited-edition prints by the acclaimed artist Al Hirschfeld – signed by the iconic stage and screen stars featured in the image – are being auctioned online to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the Al Hirschfeld Foundation. Own theater history. Highest bidders receive matted, signed prints produced especially for the auction. Samples above.

Bidding stops November 20:   Broadwaycares.org/Hirschfeld,

Highlights Only
November 7-18, 2022    
445 Park Avenue
Reception Preview    
November 16, 2022    
445 Park Avenue

Featured photo left: This photo is from the Carl Van Vechten Photographs collection at the Library of Congress

About Alix Cohen (1725 Articles)
Alix Cohen is the recipient of ten New York Press Club Awards for work published on this venue. Her writing history began with poetry, segued into lyrics and took a commercial detour while holding executive positions in product development, merchandising, and design. A cultural sponge, she now turns her diverse personal and professional background to authoring pieces about culture/the arts with particular interest in artists/performers and entrepreneurs. Theater, music, art/design are lifelong areas of study and passion. She is a voting member of Drama Desk and Drama League. Alix’s professional experience in women’s fashion fuels writing in that area. Besides Woman Around Town, the journalist writes for Cabaret Scenes, Broadway World, TheaterLife, and Theater Pizzazz. Additional pieces have been published by The New York Post, The National Observer’s Playground Magazine, Pasadena Magazine, Times Square Chronicles, and ifashionnetwork. She lives in Manhattan. Of course.

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