Los Angeles Lakers c. 1990

This is a drawing of the Los Angeles Lakers, by Jack Davis. He was best known for his dynamic caricatures, which appeared in magazines like Mad. Here we see two players from the Lakers basketball team, caught in a moment of sporting action. Davis made his name during the postwar expansion of a mass media and entertainment industry. As new institutions arose, so did new opportunities for artists like Davis to both reflect and shape American culture. The exaggerated style is typical of caricature, where visual codes are used to playfully distort reality. What is emphasized? The players’ athleticism? Their emotional state? The branding of the team? These are all part of the spectacle. As historians, we might ask: what can this tell us about the changing face of sports and celebrity culture in America? To address this we might look at contemporary magazines or marketing materials to get a better picture of the socio-economic context.