Mort Künstler was an artist best known for his pulp adventure work and paintings of significant historical events in American history, especially those of the Civil War.
- Died: February 2, 2025 (Who else died on February 2?)
- Details of death: Died in Rockville Centre, New York at the age of 97.
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Mort Künstler’s legacy
Few artists typified the look of pulp art better than Künstler, whose hyper-energetic, often sexually-charged scenes of intense action were mainstays on thousands of magazine covers over decades. Coupled with his paintings depicting American history, most notably the Civil War, this body of work made him one of the most widely seen artists in America.
Künstler was born in Brooklyn and studied art at Brooklyn College and the Pratt Institute. He worked as a freelance artist in the 1950s, largely finding work in the world of pulp adventure magazines. His high-energy scenes of brawny men and scantily-clad women fighting off hordes of adversaries were a perfect match for the era.
He also depicted scenes of outdoor life, and more notably, moments from American history. This led to his first commissioned work of historical art in 1965, a painting for National Geographic. Though much of his work in ‘70s was focused on advertising and posters, often for action movies like “The Poseidon Adventure,” his works focused on history began to draw more attention.
In 1982, CBS commissioned him to do a painting for its Civil War mini-series, “The Blue and the Gray.” Before the decade was out, Künstler’s work would be almost entirely focused on the Civil War. He became perhaps the most notable artist of the topic in the country, with his work including meticulous research into details about uniforms, gear, and more. Künstler’s work has been collected in an array of art books, including “Images of the Civil War: The Paintings of Mort Künstler,” “Gods and Generals: The Paintings of Mort Künstler,” and “For Us the Living: The Civil War in Paintings and Eyewitness Accounts.”
Exhibitions of his paintings have been featured in countless museums, and his work has been embraced by organizations such as the New York Historical Society, Richmond’s Museum of the Confederacy, and others. Awards he received included the Jefferson Davis Southern Heritage Award and the Henry Timrod Southern Culture Award.
Tributes to Mort Künstler
Full obituary: Newsday
