User:Fushuangyi/Van Kaufman

'''{Hi Max: this is off to a good start -- good organization, good details, good writing. Now you just need to flesh out every one of the parts with more detailed information! - DL}'''

Van Justin Kaufman (December 24, 1918 – October 14, 1995) was an American animator/illustrator widely known for his automotive art and advertising illustrations. He was noted for his work was on the Pontiac "wide-track" campaign from 1959-1972, working with Art Fitzpatrick, who had begun his career as an automotive designer, and asked Kaufman to do the scenics for his car ads. The two became widely known in the business as "Fitz and Van," with Fitzpatrick painting the cars and Kaufman doing the backgrounds. Their work was most often initialed "AF/VK"—collaborated on works for Pontiac, Buick, Mercury, and Opel.

Early years
Van Justin Kaufman was born in 1918. He was born in Bainbridge, Georgia, and showed no particular interest in cars early in life. The Kaufman family moved to California when he was about three years old. From an early age, Van loved painting; he took lessons at Otis Art School at the age of ten and went to Beverly Hills High School. He Painted a fresco on the Beverly Hills High School campus during his senior year that remains there to this day.

As a teenager, Van Kaufman was accepted at Chouinard Art Institute (known today as California Institute of the Arts). After graduated, he worked for Walt Disney studios, drawing the animation cells and layouts for such cartoons as Fantasia and Dumbo by the late 1930s. During World War II, Disney had a contract with the U.S. government to design insignias for various military units. Van designed about 100 such insignias, many of them featuring iconic Disney characters like Mickey mouse, Donald Duck, etc.

After leaving Disney, Van Kaufman became a sergeant in the Army Air Corps First Motion Picture Unit, producing and directing training films. After that, Van decided to make a move to the New York area, where he worked for magazines, advertising, and editorial art.

Van's career in illustration afforded him a house on Route 7 in Ridgefield, Connecticut around 1948 and set up his home studio. He had the opportunity to later visit many other places that would shape his aesthetic sensibilities. He loved France and particularly Nice, and was influenced by the Southwest style and the architecture of the Mediterranean.

Later years
In the 1950s Art Fitzpatrick, having admired Van's art for an Italian Steam Ship Line campaign, suggested him for the backgrounds on the Mercury ads.

In 1953, Fitz signed an exclusive deal with Buick, and he brought Van along on that. This began a 24-year collaboration. They had a large amount of control over their work, Fitz and Van made decisions nearly all by themselves: from how the product was portrayed to how it was positioned in the marketplaces against competitive brands and models. By 1955, the sales of Buick went from sixth place to third place in less than two years.

Their exclusively work on the Buick account ended after a new general manager for Buick came to the position. Then they worked on a brochure summarizing GM's history to date for its golden anniversary.

In 1956, General Motors wanted to reposition its Pontiac brand by making it more upscale and later launched a completely new product for Pontiac in 1959 model year. They invite Fitz and Van's team to get onto the Pontiac account. They did hundreds of Pontiac ads, most depicting glamour scenes of an upscale lifestyle.

Personal life
In the late 30s, while attending the California Institute of the Arts, he met fellow student Gertrude Hollingsworth, who was also born in 1918; Hollingsworth was studying dress design. The two were married in 1940.

Books
A book of Fitzpatrick's work with Van Kaufman was published on August 23, 2021: "Art Fitzpatrick & Van Kaufman: Masters of the Art of Automobile Advertising" ISBN 978-0-9779236-2-5.