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<TITLE>Jon Falter Biography</TITLE>
<!-- last updated December/1997 by Lyn German -->
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<CENTER><P><IMG SRC="images/falter_sig.gif" WIDTH="225" HEIGHT="28" VALIGN="0" HALIGN="0" BORDER="0"></P></CENTER>
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<P><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE="2" FACE="HELVETICA,ARIAL"> <font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">In
the paintings of <B>JOHN PHILIP FALTER (1910-1982)</B>, the central
element is always perspective. Not necessarily geometric perspective,
either; it is the perspective given by distance or association, by the
way we see individuals in contrast to their homes or their places of
work and leisure. Falter favored a bird's-eye view for many of his subjects,
affording us a careful, objective look at an animated landscape which
he interpreted with large blocks of color highlighted by crisp human
details. His best works are not about people but about their place in
the "big picture". It is no surprise that at mid-career, he became one
of the small stable of post-War <I>Saturday Evening Post</I> cover artists
when, under editor Ben Hibbs, the cover focus of that magazine shifted
from storytelling to the portrayal of the American scene, a shift for
which Falter was inadvertently responsible.</font></FONT></P>
<P><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">
When, on a chance visit to Falter's studio in 1944, Post art editor
Ken Stuart saw a painting of a quiet morning off New York's Gramercy
Park, Stuart immediately offered to purchase it as a cover piece, although
the artist had not intended it as such. Here was a deceptively simple
picture which nevertheless rendered a variegated urban scene with great
visual harmony and managed to include nineteen characters! Stuart recognized
the guaranteed appeal of the approach and soon the Post's best illustrators
were assigned to depict the country region by region. Falter eventually
produced over 200 covers for the Post alone. His prolific output also
included forty books for Reader's Digest and an outstanding series of
Bicentennial oil paintings executed for the 3M Company in 1976, the
year he was elected to the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame. -J.
P.</font></P>
<P><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">
<B><I>[Saturday Evening Post</I> cover, Gramercy Park, March 25, 1944,
oil on board 24 x 20"]</B> </font><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE="2" FACE="HELVETICA,ARIAL">
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