Visiting Artist Lecture - Guy Billout, Illustrator

WCSU MFA Visiting Artist Lecture with

Guy Billout has been called the Buster Keaton of the illustration world. His works are funny, acrobatic feats of mental agility that challenge the laws of logic. His characters retain composure no matter what; impending doom does not unnerve them; and under the dark humor, optimism prevails. In 2015, Billout received the highest honor; he was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame.

Guy was born and educated in France and moved to Paris in the 1960s to work in advertising graphic design. He came to the U.S. in 1969 as an inexperienced illustrator with an improvised, unique portfolio, presented to Milton Glaser at New York magazine. Glaser loved his work and published it in its entirety.

For 24 years, Billout created a stand-alone page in The Atlantic magazine, in full color, with total editorial freedom. From 2001 to 2011, he illustrated articles in The New Yorker magazine by Seymour Hersh on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His client list includes Esquire, Rolling Stone, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, among others. He is the recipient of many awards, among them the Hamilton King Award and The New York Times “Ten Best Illustrated Children’s Books” for five years. At his Hall of Fame induction, Billout was described as “more than an illustrator, a compassionate poet of the absurd.”

Host or Publisher Visual & Performing Arts Center at WCSU