Steve Brodner

Profile

After getting his BFA at Cooper Union in 1976 Brodner became editorial cartoonist at The Hudson Dispatch, in Union City, New Jersey. In 1977 Steven Heller, protean art director of The New York Times Book Review, began tapping him for illustration assignments. Eventually Brodner realized he could survive nicely just doing this without ever having a real job. This is called Freelance Illustration. To this day he is still confused about how this works. In 1979-82 he published his own journal, The New York Illustrated News which was a little like this Bicycle but using a technique called printing. In 1981 he became a regular contributor to Harper’s magazine with the monthly feature, “Ars Politica”, a name thought up by Lewis Lapham, Harper’s editor. In the late 1980’s, as editors realized that Ronald Reagan was less like an Olympian God and more like a rotting puppet, more magazines asked Brodner to contribute regularly. These included the National Lampoon, Sports Illustrated, Playboy and Spy. In 1988 Esquire brought him in as an unofficial house artist. It was there that he did portrait caricature, art journalism and a back-page political cartoon, “Adversaria”. This all served to convince him that illustration was an important part of the mix of any journalistic enterprise. Well... isn’t it? Since then he has worked for most major publications in the US and Canada. Steve Brodner is a great admirer of Cynthia Rose with whom he is raising two dogs on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He's received numerous awards from the Society of Illustrators, Art Directors Club, SPD, SND, American Illustration, Communication Arts. The 2000 Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, Hunter College, NY. 2005 Society of Illustrators Hamilton King Award for best art in show by an SI member. 2007 Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society for Best Magazine Illustration of the Year. 2010 St. Gaudens Award for Alumni Achievement, The Cooper Union. 2010 Reuben Award from The NCS for Advertising. 2011 Gold medal, Editorial, Society of Illustrators. He teaches narrative art at the School of Visual Arts, Fashion Institute of Technology and considers teaching a selfish act, as his students bring him more than he gives them, but he never mentions this.