Portrait of Richie Zisk
Object number2008.152.10
Artist
Henry Koerner
(1915 - 1991)
Date1971-1976
Mediumpaper; ink
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Henry Koerner
DescriptionBlack ink pen drawing of Pittsburgh Pirates player Richie Zisk, standing in front of locker. Dimensions15.875 x 20.75 in. (40.3 x 52.7 cm)InscriptionsBehind player, in proper right background, is a jersey with text: "RATES / 22".
MarksHandwritten in pencil on back: "RICHIE / ZISK"; lower right corner, "Zisk".
Historical NotesDrawing of Richie Zisk, outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1970s. Part of a collection of sixteen pen and ink drawings of Pittsburgh Pirates, by Henry Koerner. Henry Koerner was a Vienna-born painter whose portraits of celebrities like Maria Callas and John F. Kennedy appeared on the cover of Time magazine. He was considered a master of Magic Realism, whose works are in the permanent collection of several museums, such as the National Portrait Gallery and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He started out as a commercial artist in Brooklyn. He emigrated to the United States in 1938. Throughout much of WWII, he designed posters for the Office of War Information and the Office of Strategic Services. He was sent to Germany after the war to sketch the Nuremberg trials for the American Military Government. Koerner visited Vienna and learned that his mother, father, and brother died in a concentration camp. Koerner moved to Pittsburgh in 1952 and taught at Chatham College and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He was hit by a car while bicycling with his wife and died while in Vienna in 1991.
Related institution
Pittsburgh Pirates
(founded 1887)
Related person
Richard Walter Zisk
(born 1949)
Related institution
Art Institute of Pittsburgh
Related institution
Chatham University
On View
Not on view
