NOTEWORTHY DEATH

Caricaturist for N.Y. Review of Books

NEW YORK -

David Levine, an artist whose witty caricatures illustrated The New York Review of Books for more than 40 years, has died. He was 83.

Levine died Tuesday at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan of prostate cancer and complications from other ailments. His death was confirmed by Robert Silvers, editor of The New York Review, who called Levine “the greatest caricaturist of his time.”

Levine’s drawings of politicians, celebrities, writers and historical figures typically had large heads and exaggerated features - Albert Einstein with a nimbus of hair, Richard Nixon all 5-o’clock shadow and skislope nose. In one well-known image from 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson pulls up his shirt to reveal a gallbladderoperation scar shaped like themap of Vietnam.

The drawings defined the look of The New York Review, which sold them on calendars and T-shirts. From a few months after it began publishing in 1963 until he was diagnosed with the eye disease macular degeneration in 2006, Levine contributed more than 3,800 drawings to the Review, which has continued to illustrate its articles with old Levine drawings.

Levine’s work also appeared in Esquire, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated and The New Yorker, among other publications.

John Updike, who was drawn several times by Levine, once called the artist “one of America’s assets. In a confusing time, he bears witness. In a shoddy time, he does good work.”