Life and work
Everett Kinstler was born in 1926 in New York City, the son of Essie and Joseph Kunstler.[2][3]
He started his artistic career at age 16, drawing comic books, paperback book covers, and book and magazine illustrations.[1] He studied at the Art Students League of New York and later taught there (1969 – 1974).[4] Kinstler also studied at the National Academy of Design.[4]
Kinstler's influences included Alex Raymond, James Montgomery Flagg, Howard Chandler Christy, Milton Caniff, and Hal Foster.[4]
Kinstler's pulp illustrations number in the hundreds, and cover many different genres including western, romance, crime, mystery, and war. Popular Publications was among the largest publishers of pulps in which his black-and-white illustrations appeared.
In comic books, he was particularly known for his western and romance comic work. He worked extensively for Avon Periodicals, as well as Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, Dell/Western Publishing, National Periodicals/DC Comics, St. John Publications, Atlas Comics/Marvel Comics, and Gilberton. The titles he spent the most time on were Avon's Realistic Romances, Witchcraft, and White Princess of the Jungle; and Ziff-Davis/St. John's Nightmare.
Beginning in the 1960s Kinstler shifted into the realm of portrait painting. He painted over 1200 portraits of leading figures in business, entertainment and government, including official portraits of eight U.S. Presidents, including Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.[1] Perhaps America's most important working portrait artist, Kinstler held a Portraits, Inc. Lifetime Achievement Award for which a university scholarship is awarded each year in his name.
For more than 70 years, Kinstler lived and worked at The National Arts Club, of which he was a member. He painted over 2,000 of his subjects at his studio at the club – including President Reagan, Katharine Hepburn, Tony Bennett, Salvador Dalí, Carol Burnett, and Leonard Bernstein – and many of his works are included in its permanent collection. In the fall of 2018, he was honored at the club's 120th anniversary celebration for his outstanding career and commitment to the arts.
Among Kinstler's pupils were Michael Shane Neal, Dawn Whitelaw, Johanna Spinks, and Loryn Brazier.[5]
He died from heart failure in Bridgeport, CT on May 26, 2019, at the age of 92.[6][7][8]
