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Digital, Graphic Design
Posted by Mark Sinclair, 11 December 2007, 19:22 Permalink Comments (26)
Tony Soprano as drawn by illustrator Noma Bar
Israeli illustrator Noma Bar depicts the faces of the famous using only a few lines, colours and drawn objects. But the key to the success of the London-based artist’s work is how the objects he assembles to create each face immediately relate to the particular person in question: evoking their personality, reputation or,
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Hence two twisting missiles imply the familiar specs of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (above) and the merest of red lines with the Tory logo bring out the über-stern profile of Margaret Thatcher (below).
A selection of Bar’s greatest hits have been collected together in Guess Who? The Many Faces of Noma Bar (out this month) and what’s particularly revealing is just how hard-hitting his simple arrangements can be. No stranger to a controversial image, Bar’s Michael Jackson has the outline of a small child for his eyes and nose, while the unmistakable face of George W Bush is made wholly from a stylised version of an infamous photograph of a tortured Abu Ghraib prisoner.
Just as you’re remarking how cleverly he’s summed up Nick Hornby’s visage (using a record player), Bar throws in a Vladimir Putin, made solely from a test-tube pouring chemicals into an opened hand.
Bar’s understanding of pictograms, as well as his wickedly satirical eye,
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Guess Who? is published by Mark Batty Publishers, £12.95