Spanish born artist Eduardo Garcia Benito (1891 - 1981), a master of illustration during the Art Deco period, went to Paris at the age of 19, where he established himself as a fashion artist. His style is reminiscent of the Cubist paintings of Picasso. Benito made his living in Paris by painting society portraits & illustrating fashions in the Gazette du Bon Ton. Conde Nast met Benito in 1920. Within a year, Benito was one of Vogue & Vanity Fair’s most important artists. Benito’s signature style – what Condé Nast referred to as the “Big Head” – captures the look & spirit of art deco. Art movements as Cubism & Constructivism inspired his iconic & stylized geometric forms. His illustrations of fashionable women, reduced down to a few strokes of the pen, often feature long necks topped with heads resembling the African-figure sculptures of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, a friend of Benito’s in Paris.
