The Greek American who captured the zeitgeist in fashion illustration

Blogger Gina Moyer writes that fashion illustration has the "dexterity to freeze a moment in history through the lenses of artistic style, attitudes reflective of the time period, and the latest trends in fashion..." George Stavrinos (1948-90) did much more than that. With his extraordinary craftsmanship and artistic genius, his work ventures into the fine arts, knocking fashion illustration right out of the park.

Bradford Hamann, assistant professor of graphic design at Shepherd University, writes that Stavrinos revolutionized fashion illustration, proving that it could be "imbued with dramatic content, it could be monumental in feel, and it could stand as 'Art' in the truest sense of the word."

It's been said that Stavrinos' art belongs to Superrealism, a movement of the late 1960s and early 70s in which art approaches the realism of photography. According to Hamann...