OLIVER…with a twist / Jordy Berman and The Illustrated Gallery
Ten years ago, I filmed a wonderful interview with Jordy Berman of The Illustrated Gallery – one of the most extraordinary private collections I’ve ever seen of 20th Century illustration. Jordy not only owns a number of Richard Amsel’s original works, but he was good friends with Amsel’s parents, and had met Richard a few times during the artist’s formative years.
It was through Jordy that I was able to buy Amsel’s self-portrait, done back when he was just a teenager. My filmed interview with Jordy was brief (I had less than an hour to set up, film, and strike my equipment), but nevertheless invaluable.
It must be said that, despite the many other testimonials I've heard over the years about tensions and fractures within the Amsel family, Jordy spoke of them – particularly Richard’s parents – very warmly. It’s a perspective that I feel is essential to include in the film; I just wish more people shared it.
But I digress…
Jordy’s passion for illustration is infectious. After years working in real estate, it led him to a fruitful second career as a preeminent collector and seller of narrative art. Jordy’s both a joy to know, and a pleasure to do business with. His longtime support of the project has meant the world to me.
Among my favorite pieces of Jordy’s collection was an illustration Amsel did of the Oscar-winning 1968 film OLIVER. For years, I just assumed it was one of his student or personal portfolio projects…
Well, once again, I’ve learned that I was wrong.
Amsel’s art WAS published – not as a movie poster, but as a Scholastic paperback movie tie-in edition of Dickens’ Oliver Twist, published in 1969. And here’s a low-rez image of the book as proof:
In going through my old files, I recently rediscovered some of the pictures I had taken during my first visit to The Illustrated Gallery. Among them was a digital photo of the OLIVER artwork that I’d completely forgotten about, and of much better quality than what else I had. I’d been keeping this “lost” photo (or, in more Dickensian fashion, shall I say orphaned?) among my personal images on my computer, rather than the project’s file folders.
So, without further ado, here’s another, re-restored digital image of the artwork:
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