Timeline

Paul Davis left Oklahoma for New York at age 17 to pursue a career in art. He had won a scholarship to the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (now the School of Visual Arts), and as a student garnered an occasional freelance assignment, including one for Playboy in 1959. That same year he presented his portfolio to Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast at Push Pin Studios and was invited to join the young, highly regarded firm.

In 1963 Davis opened his own studio. His distinctive work was quickly in demand in the U.S. and abroad, and his portraits, especially striking, graced the pages and covers of TIME, Rolling Stone, New York, Esquire and many other major magazines, as well as book jackets, record albums and posters in the U.S. and abroad.

In 1975, he started what became a famous series of 52 theater posters for Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival and Public Theater, honored in 1987 with a special Drama Desk Award.

Davis’s paintings have been celebrated in books and exhibitions at galleries and museums throughout the world, including retrospectives in Japan and at the inaugural opening of Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. He is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and the Art Directors Hall of Fame, and a Fellow and Resident of the American Academy in Rome.