Episode 21: Barbara Nessim
Barbara Nessim in her studio. Cosmopolitan, March 1968.
A new start—but one with a foundation in the past. Lady’s After Hours podcast is starting afresh with a new name and new home. I’ve renamed it Sighs & Whispers, returning to a long ago blog I had about fashion and culture. All the same themes constantly reappearing in my work—history, fashion, culture, art, personal stories. All of the Lady’s After Hours episodes will now live on this website as will all new episodes—the name will also change on all podcast platforms. This change feels right as we begin to emerge from the pandemic.
I recorded this interview with Barbara Nessim a few months ago. An artist, teacher, creative visionary, Barbara is a completely inspiring soul. A highly successful commercial artist for several decades, I became acquainted with her work just by going through old magazines—her luscious line drawings and luminous colors seeming to leap from the page. In 2013 I happened to be in London while the Victoria & Albert Museum was showing a retrospective of her work, Barbara Nessim: An Artful Life, which introduced me to the many other facets of her creativity. The companion book to that exhibition is a truly wonderful exploration of Nessim’s style, iconography and work—I highly recommend it.
Dancing on a String, 1971
Her work is instantly recognizable, whether from 1965 or today. Clarity of line and of color exemplifies her work, which relies on a deeply intuitive and conceptual mythmaking. Nessim has kept sketchbooks since 1965, which she uses as the basis for all fine art and commercial projects—lending even the most mundane of magazine jobs a visionary quality that makes them nearly indistinguishable from artworks created for gallery walls. Fine art, illustration, watercolor, monotype etching, lithography, ceramics, oil painting, computer art—Nessim seamlessly shifts between all of these mediums.
Born in the Bronx in 1939, Nessim’s blouse designer mother instilled in her a passion for creativity and independence. She studied Graphic Art and Illustration at Pratt, funding her own education by working as a fashion illustrator and designer. In our conversation we delve deeply into her artistic path from childhood to college and how she made it as a commercial artist in the 1960s. Roommates with Gloria Steinem for eight years, the pair lived and worked together in the same studio apartment for a year before moving into a two room flat—their deep friendship continues to this day. While Nessim describes herself as less political than Steinem, both the way she has lived her life and the subjects of her art reveal a clear feminism. An independent career woman, she was one of very few full-time professional women illustrators working in the United States during the 1960s and she later established her own graphic design firm in 1980, Nessim and Associates.
Nessim at SVA, 1986. Photo by Seiji Kakazaki.
In the 1980s Barbara became an early pioneer in computer art—one of the few classically trained artists at the time who saw the value in wedding fine art with computer technology. Macweek Graphics Arts magazine explained that “she is leading technology and the art world past boundaries that obviously are not meant to exist.” Her experimentations opened up a new world to her—she found ways to create her signature lines and people in rudimentary graphics programs, developed codes to produce digital books and created large-scale artworks collaging digital prints of computer sketches. Barbara then brought her passion into education while teaching at SVA and FIT. In 1991 she became the chair of the Illustration Department at Parsons, agreeing to take the job if they purchased the computers and software that she could see would be necessary for the next generation of illustrators and designers.
Continuing to produce new work, Nessim has an exhibition, Stargirl, now up at the Malin Gallery in NYC. Featuring works from a new series, The Wo/men in My Life, which return to her sketchbooks of fifty years, channeling the inspiration into large-scale oil paintings. According to Jessica Eisenthal, “These impressively scaled canvases are portraits of non-binary individuals in wild and vivid colors, painted to a sensuous velvety texture and peppered with recognizable imagery from six decades of work—ribbons, swirls, geometric shapes that anthropomorphize, impossible hair and silhouetted nipples.”
We cover all of this and much more in our conversation. From the personal—her childhood in a Jewish neighborhood in the 1940 and 50s, through life as a single woman making her way in New York in the 60s and 70s, a later marriage and her decision not to have children—to the artistic—inspirations, mentors, development of style, innovations and more.
A slideshow of some of Barbara Nessim’s work for magazines:
This animation entitled "Face to Face" was created by Barbara Nessim on October 22, 1984. Music by Jean Michel Jarre.
Winsor & Newton presents a visit to Barbara Nessim’s studio in New York City - Winter 2015.
At SVA, Gloria Steinem and Barbara Nessim discussing their lives as pioneering young women starting their careers in New York City, September 24, 2018.
Barbara Nessim art and publications for your home:
