JF Ptak Science Books LLC   Post 253

I’m sorry to report that the publisher and beneficiary of this
brilliant 1940’s advertising art–General Electric–swallowed up the
identity of their artist.  Nowhere in the 1942 publication with the
Huxleyesque title of Electronics, a New Science for a New World is
there any mention of the poor artist who gave vision to this retread
idea…or retread if you don’t consider the “electronics” part.  Yes,
the art is a little removed and slightly, spatially, naive; and the
colors are too much and the symbolism too big (there’s allot of host of hosts stuff, offerings up to the big sky),and the images are a little ridiculous,  but they are jolting (for good or for ill) and it really does speak for its time.  And in 1942 electronics was just about to come to the rescue and save World War II:  from tracking aircraft for anti-aircraft weapons to RADAR to the development of computers to the Enigma to the development of the atomic bomb, and on and on, “electronics” did ride in on a white horse to save the day.  I can understand perfectly well the sentiments exhibited in these fabulously bombastic illustrations: the extraordinary power of radio and the beginning of television, the beautifully rendered hands on the front cover (the shadows on the fingernails are done very well) holding the electronic chalice, the baby and the butterfly (and all of that other weird stuff strewn about); all are getting ready for the bigger world that was coming as the beneficiary of this electronic revolution.  And, as a matter of fact, no one really had a clue as to what was coming–that baby would be retiring now, and the changes that occurred during its lifetime are so supremely removed and incalculable from 1942 that it makes even the vast hope exhibited in these electronic icons seem mild.  It also makes me wonder about what brave oceanic beliefs and expectations of the future that we have today will look common and sugary (or saccharin, or whatever) in the year 2074.