Elvis 1993

This is Albert Hirschfeld’s caricature of Elvis, made with pen and ink. Imagine the artist's hand as he scratched and scribbled the form of the King. It's amazing to see how he captured Elvis’s energy with just a few, very simple, strokes. I can almost feel Hirschfeld's energy and enthusiasm! Just look at the thick black line of the hair contrasting with the delicate shading of Elvis's chest. There's a playful exaggeration of Elvis’s features, but it's never mean-spirited, instead offering a loving homage. I love to think about how artists are always riffing off each other, across time, inspiring each other's imaginations. This drawing reminds me of other caricaturists like David Levine, who made similar work for the New York Review of Books. Here, the artist uses abstraction as a form of embodied expression, allowing for endless interpretations.