Fitz and Van

Their full names were Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman, and for many decades their amazing automobile artwork dominated the heyday of classic print ad advertising. They were responsible for an amazing run of Pontiac print ads that would even impress fans of today's overly-praised digital illustration. 

I discovered their work when I was about eleven or twelve years old. My grandmother had subscribed to National Geographic magazine for many years, and during a visit to her house my brother and I started going through all her old issues. As a typical twelve year old boy I liked cars. Not so much engines and what made them go, I was much more interested in how they looked. I especially liked older cars from the 1950s. I found them much more appealing than contemporary cars.  

National Geographic contained a great many ads for automobiles and with my grandmother's permission, my brother and I started pulling out the car ads from the magazines. I collected them together in a file folder. 

Well certain ads really stood out from the rest and those were the ones for Pontiac products. Unlike many of the other advertisements, the Pontiac ads were actual illustrations and not just photos like the ones for Ford and Chevy. These illustrations made the Pontiac cars look just amazing! They were huge! Hoods and rear decks that stretched for a mile it seemed. The cars were depicted in exotic locals, as well as more familiar domestic spots. But all had a unique quality with which simple photos just could not compete.  They certainly made me want to buy a 50s vintage Pontiac...that was for sure. These illustrations sometimes had a double artists's initials signed upon them. "AF VK" At the time I had no idea if these were the initials of TWO artists or a single artist with a long multi-component name.  Back in the pre-internet era I really had no way to find out anything about just WHO created these amazing images. My parents certainly couldn't tell me anything about art or illustration. Nor could any teacher or even the school librarian who ONLY allowed classic literature in her library. Even my art teachers were only interested in "Fine Art". Illustration was to be looked down upon. And finally... The Yellow Pages? I think not.  No, "AF and VK" would remain a mystery to me for a few more decades. 

After the advent of the internet, and couple of personal computers under my belt, I finally thought to research the mysterious initials on the WWW. It did not take long to solve that mystery after so many years. I was not surprised to lean what GIANTS these men were in their time.  

Well I won't go into too much detail here as I feel you should check out the websites you'll find LINKED below and see Fritz and Van's work and hear their story for yourself. But I will tell you this much...Art painted the cars and Van painted the backgrounds and people in the ads...