Drawing Presidential lines

“George Washington’’ (1968) and “Abraham Lincoln”(1968), (both ink on paper), in the show “Oscar Berger Presidential Portraits”, at the New Britain (Conn.) Museum of American Art, through Aug. 30.

The museum says:

“Internationally acclaimed as ‘the greatest caricaturist of world celebrities,’ Oscar Berger (1901–1997) depicted the ‘Who’s Who” of world history throughout his career.

“Born in 1901 in Czechoslovakia, Berger became a cartoonist in Prague, before moving to New York, where his work appeared in leading publications, including The New York Times, Life, and the New York Herald Tribune. Following in the tradition of other notable caricaturists, such as Thomas Nast (1840–1902) and Georges Goursat (1863–1934), Berger aimed to capture the likeness and character of his models and to distill and exaggerate their ‘essence.’

“In 1968, Berger embarked on an ambitious project to depict our nation’s presidents, from Washington to Nixon. His presidential caricatures are distinct in style and technique, however, in that they are each made with one continuous line. As Berger himself explained, ‘through the bearded and the cleanjowled, the somber and the sly, the able and the not-so-able; the line flows along, endlessly witnessing the persistence of the American consensus.’ For Berger, an imaginary line connected each drawing, encompassing all of the presidents and symbolically representing the continuous history of American leadership. Saturated with wisdom and wit, Berger’s portraits aim to entertain while also conjuring the personalities and legacies of the American presidents.’’