Among the more than a million people that died last week were Milton Glaser and Charles Webb. Each of which created single works that grew into cultural icons of American culture in the late 60s. Bookending a time by the novel of a 24 year old and the logo made by a 48 year old that emerged 14 years apart, shows that structuring the past into numerical decades has its inherent problems. 60s is more like a label than a match for a digit column on the calendar.
Looking at the lives of both creators is interesting in itself. Seeing how the works ‘that they are known for’ influenced them is also also worth studying.
There is this romantic notion of the artist and the work forming a unity. One that really gets stretched once a work falls into the amplification black hole at the very center of public culture. The work explodes in its importance. Once it is in everybody’s head it creates its own references and connections. Robert Altman decided to open his more than watchable 1992 movie “The Player” opens with a pitch of a Graduate sequel.
Likewise I❤NY is a staple of every T Shirt shop, not only in the five boroughs.
It is a very specific challenge for the people who made works that got this much attention. As Webb and Glaser showed it can be approached in many different ways.
Much like not just a few among the million dead had specific interpretations and memories of the movie and the emblem. All of which are gone now.