While the illustrator Brad Holland may not be a household name, you could say that if anyone represented the power of illustration, over the past half century, to provoke, it would be this artist. Entirely self-taught, he worked his way up from studio rat sweeping floors in a Chicago tattoo parlor to being one of the first in The New York Times’ roster of artists for its new Op Ed page, in 1970. The Watergate scandal offered the kind of material that excited Holland’s conceptual approach, resulting in a series that included Nixon as  one of the colossal Easter Island heads [left]. For this work, the Times nominated him for a Pulitzer Prize. Above: Brad Holland, COM DI COMM COMM, 2007 [detail], Serapions Odeon Theater; courtesy SVA

He knew at a young age, growing up in rural Ohio that he wanted to be an artist, in a place that offered neither role models nor resources. After working long enough in Chicago to save up a thousand dollars, he headed to New York, where he made his way by freelancing for underground press outlets such as the East Village Other. His single-minded approach, reminiscent of the Howard Johnson mantra, “keep your eye upon the donut, and not upon the hole,” served to strengthen his inner resolve to do only the work that informed his way of thinking about the world he inhabited. 

Holland famously walked away from assignments that required that he follow an art director’s lead. Equally notable were his often grotesque, ambiguously metaphoric ink drawings that are as persuasively anti-war as Goya’s etchings. When he did a stint at Hallmark early on, he was warned to lighten it up, that his drawings weren’t "friendly” enough. But by the 1980s, his conceptual approach had rung true, and his work seemed to be everywhere. Holland’s paintings have been exhibited around the world, and his notable editorial work appeared in Time, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Playboy, and Rolling Stone, among others, and created original work for corporations such as IBM and the MacArthur Foundation. He was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 2005. Above: Brad Holland, ATTICA, 1971, The New York Times; courtesy SVA  

After his passing in March 2025, SVA faculty member and a close friend of Holland's, Jonathan Twingley, rescued his vast body of work, which included framed paintings, pastels and drawings, paintings on canvas, posters, unframed photographs, and other 2-dimensional works, as well as personal ephemera, including a table easel and the artist's painting palettes. With guidance and expertise from fellow SVA alumnus and Norman Rockwell Museum's Chief Curator and Rockwell Center Director, Stephanie Plunkett; SVA MFA Design co-founder, Steven Heller; and SVA Galleries, Twingley has spearheaded the painstaking work of archiving and preserving Holland's artistic legacy, resulting in the exhibition Brad Holland: Making it Personal.The show, which opens next week, offers a reconsideration of one of the most influential illustrators of the twentieth century. Above: Brad Holland, A House Divided, 1999, for Penthouse Magazine; acrylic on masonite.

“Brad Holland was a fiercely independent man, and these strict instincts followed him across his career as an illustrator,” says Twingley. “Despite what was common practice at the time, he would rather have starved to death than execute somebody else’s ideas. And as he told Art Paul, founding art director of Playboy, in 1968, ‘I don’t know if my ideas will be better than yours, but they will be more personal.’ This, in a nutshell, was Brad’s way, and his lasting contribution to the spirit of modern illustration.” Left: Brad Holland, Stevie Ray Vaughan, 1983; courtesy SVA

“Brad Holland’s legacy deserves renewed attention today because the qualities that distinguished his work have become even more valuable, says Plunkett. “In an era when images can be generated instantly, and technical proficiency is increasingly accessible, originality of thought has become the defining characteristic of memorable visual communication….It will be meaningful to introduce his art and philosophy to new audiences, including art students and practicing artists, who will find inspiration in the work of this master of American illustration.”

Opening reception: Wednesday, September 9, 6-8pm. Continues through September 19 at SVA Gramercy Gallery, 209 East 23^rd Street, New York, NY The SVA Gramercy Gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00am–6:00pm Info Read Steven Heller's tribute in PRINT.

Save the date, Thursday, September 17, 6:45pm: Panel discussion on Brad Holland's life and legacy with Steve Heller, Terry Brown and Stephanie Plunkett, moderated by Jonathan Twingley. SVA Amphitheater, 209 East 23rd Street FL2, New York, NY Info [scroll down]