Contemporary Arts Center remembers the life and work of Charley Harper.

» Read the Mayoral Proclamation for December 8: Charley Harper Day
» Listen to the Interview with Charley Harper by Todd Oldham on WVXU's Around Cincinnati (MP3)
» Charley Harper Image Downloads for Media
» What others are saying
» Charley Harper Desktop Wallpaper

Charley Harper

Best known for the children's book The Golden Book of Biology, Harper was an extraordinarily prolific graphic designer contributing his unique, geometric style to a wide range of publications, including Ford Times, Betty Crocker's Dinner for Two Cookbook and graphics produced by the Audubon Society and the National Park Service.

As a master illustrator and designer inspired by Modernism, Harper developed a unique geometric style. A graduate of the Art Academy, Harper's depictions of nature-especially birds-were a major influence for contemporary artists and designers today, including Ryan McGinness and Todd Oldham.

Born in West Virginia in 1922, Harper's upbringing on his family farm informed his work to his last days. He left his farm home to study art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, and there he met his wife, artist Edie Harper. He later taught at the Art Academy while he and Edie raised their son, Brett.

In an interview with Todd Oldham for the book Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life, Harper discussed his simplified forms:

"I don't think there was much resistance to the way I simplified things. I think everybody understood that. Some people liked it and others didn't care for it. There's some who want to count all the feathers in the wings and then others who never think about counting the feathers, like me."

Harper passed away in June, 2007. He saw the first edition of Todd Oldham's loving tribute to his life when Oldham visited Harper in early June.

The Artist

An astonishingly versatile artist fluent in every technique from brushy abstraction to precise realism, Harper is best known for his unique style combining straight and curved lines and flat areas of carefully selected colors. It is in this elegant, playful style that Harper has established himself as an innovative wildlife artist.

Birds are Harper's main subject, but his representations are unconventional. He contrasts his own work with the famous engravings of naturalist John James Audubon saying, "Audubon counted every feather on each wing; I just count the wings." In their dynamic, arabesque lines, crisp planes of color, and inventive depictions of motion, Harper's images of birds reflect the artist's awareness of Cubism, Minimalism, Einsteinian physics and countless other developments in Modern art and science.

Harper also simultaneously simplifies and distills the natural world, from depictions of Model T Fords in American landscapes, to a mosaic mural of Ohio animals (for Cincinnati's Federal building), to countless versions of what has become a signature image-the ladybug. He also writes about his natural subjects. The ornithological illustrations in the book Birds and Words, for example, are accompanied by short prose poems that zing and soar like the animals they describe.

Harper is a graduate of the Art Academy of Cincinnati, where he met his wife Edie Harper, whose work also will be featured in Graphic Content in June 2007. Charley and Edie began their lifelong collaboration in 1947 with a book illustrating their three-month honeymoon driving trip. By mayoral proclamation, December 8 is Charley Harper Day in Cincinnati.

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In memoriam: A community speaks out

"Charley Harper's impact on the world of art and design echoed through several generations and across the globe. His minute precision and lovingly rendered creations will continue to inspire generations to follow. We have much to say - and much to learn - of his unique gift, his extraordinary talent, his artistic contribution and his kind and generous spirit. Charley Harper befriended every member of the staff of the CAC. He inspired us with his humble, cheerful manner and his brilliant, beautiful artwork. The Harper family is beloved to us, and our hearts are broken today."
-- Official statement from the Contemporary Arts Center

"It not only hurts, it’s a shock to learn that Charley passed on. Although, as I think about him, he will always be very much alive.

His art is timeless, I never think of his work as a style. He composed ideas in a minimal way, stripping his compositions of complexities, making them more universally understood.

I think it is accurate for me to say that he has been an influence on my total family—my wife Clarice, four children and nine grandchildren who are in love with nature. I never see a ladybug without thinking of Charley.

Any time that I was “down in the dumps” when I was a student at the Academy, all I needed to do was run into Charley, he had the most unusual sense of humor, almost as unique as his art. To this day I still smile when I think of the things Charley said to me."

-- Malcolm Grear

"I'm so sad. He was such a gentle soul. What a legacy he's left us. God bless him. He was truly a Cincinnati treasure."
-- Lee Hay, WVXU and host of Around Cincinnati

"To be honest, I think I need to cry a bit."
-- Sara Pearce, Cincinnati Enquirer and Art Blog

"Charley Harper was such an important tap root for our creative community. Generous with his time, his encouragement, his talent - his artwork will continue to remind us that the beautiful, the whimsical and the orderly are all essential parts of artistic expression.

I love how the freshness of his paintings engage, make us smile, and leave us nodding that we, too, "have noticed that." What a gift - he took time to consider life's details with us. His artwork connected us with nature, and by consequence, we connected to each other through appreciation of Charley's viewpoint.

Thank you, Charley. You maintained and inspired respect for our natural environment through times when it was too commonly treated like property."

-- Jan Brown Checco, Cincinnati Artist

"At the opening reception for his brilliant exhibition, Charley, in his characteristic humility, asked whether or not I had seen "our piece", a little brochure I had conceived and he had cleverly designed. To have given me ANY ownership was overly generous. But that's exactly who Charley Harper was -- generous with his time, his talent, his teaching, his infectious smile and his sweet kind demeanor. We've lost one of the best."

-- Richard Rosenthal, Contemporary Arts Center Trustee