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Illustrator Spotlight: Kenneth Paul Block (R.I.P.)

April 23, 2009
By

Fashion Illustrator Kenneth Paul Block

Longtime Women’s Wear Daily and W magazine illustrator Kenneth Paul Block, 84, a champion in the art of fashion illustration, died today at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New York…

Block joined Fairchild Publications in the Fifties and worked there until the fashion illustration department was disbanded in 1992. Through it all, he swiftly yet fastidiously captured an array of subjects with a cool and detached manner, jetting to Europe for the couture shows or sauntering just up the street to sketch unsuspecting notables at lunch. All the while, he fulfilled what he once described as a childhood quest “to draw glamorous women in beautiful clothes.”

… or Block, the end result was never just a matter of lines on a page. The way he saw it, “Gesture is everything in fashion,” he said.

Read the full obituary at WWD.com

For more of Block’s work, see “Drawing Fashion: The Art of Kenneth Paul Block”
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  • http://www.landmarkmedia.ca frederick watson

    I was very sad to hear of Kenneth Paul Blocks passing. we have lost a fine illustrator of fashion and a true icon of glamour.
    i met Kenneth in New York at his apartment on Riverside Drive we had a wouderful evening with him and Morton they were so gracious and
    fun to be around. I am a fashion illustrator in toronto ontario canada. i also started in the 1950s. one day i was at The Women’s Wear Daily
    and there was Kenneth looking so dapper in his bow tie smart suit drawing fashion he said lets meet for lunch but i was very busy and said
    next time i am in New York. now i regret not meeting him at that time.i have some wonderful photos with him and Morton.
    he said if i publish them he would sue me then laughed!
    I only wish i could have one more evening with him and Morton. but thats not to be.
    if you would like to see my web-site with >landmarkmedia.ca< frederick watson fashion illustrator and artist.
    yours frederick…..