Library Features the Artwork of Jack Endewelt

Jack Endewelt was born in Brooklyn in 1935. He enrolled in art school at the School of Visual Arts after a two-year stint in the army. He quickly became a successful illustrator, and in 1968, SVA hired him to teach painting and illustration. He became the co-chair of the Media Arts Department in 1987 and chair of the BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department in 1991. Throughout his time at SVA, he maintained a prolific career as a freelance illustrator and was a dedicated painter.

Endewelt's paintings have been exhibited at a number of galleries in New York City, including the Alan Stone Gallery, the Vorpal Gallery and the Helio Gallery, among others; in Nevada, at the Contemporary Arts Collective; and posthumously at the School of Visual Arts in New York and the Trifecta Gallery in Las Vegas, NV. His pictures, rendered in a meticulously realistic style, range from depictions of common items such as chocolates to vintage World War II to dreamy depictions of clouds and desertscapes. Some of the paintings and drawings tend toward a more surrealistic nature, with disparate icons and objects arranged to suggest new ideas about their form and identity.

Endewelt also created illustrations for numerous book publishers including Dell, Avon, Bantam Books, Bankstreet Books, Time/Life Books, the Franklin Library, Holt, and Rinehart and Winston. His work appeared in magazines such as Reader’s Digest, Ladies Home Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, Town Magazine in Britain and Idea magazine in Japan. In 1995, he was awarded a silver medal for his work by the Society of Illustrators.

In 2000, he retired from SVA and moved to Nevada with his wife Barbara.

Endewelt passed away in January, 2006. His daughter, Amanda Eigen, is a librarian here at Maplewood Memorial Library.

*For more information on the artist and his work, please contact Amanda Eigen.