NAPOLI

Paul Art (born January 18, 1925) is an American graphic designer and was the founding art director of Playboy magazine for 30 years. During his time at Playboy, he commissioned illustrators and artists to illustrate (Warhol, Dali, and Ronsenquist among them).In addition to being an art director and graphic designer (in particular of Playboy's rabbit logo), Art Paul is an illustrator, fine artist, curator, writer, and composer. There has been a surge of recent interest concerning both Art's past and present, with recent talks, books, exhibitions, and a documentary being made about him. At 91 years old, he is now putting his drawings and writings into book form, with projects focused on race, aging, animals, and graphic whimsy.After leaving Playboy in 1982, Paul did graphic design, posters, and logos for a number of clients in magazines, advertising, television and film. For the last ten years he has concentrated primarily on drawing and painting, exhibiting most recently at the Chicago Cultural Center and at Columbia College in Chicago. He has served on boards of the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, the Association of Art Curators in Chicago, and the Illinois Summer School of the Arts. At present he is working on two books of his drawings. Paul currently lives in Chicago. In 1980, Paul was elected a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale. The Institute of Design, IIT, honored him with its professional achievement award in 1983, and in 1986 he was elected to the Hall of Fame of the Art Directors Club.