Closer Than We Think, the futuristic vision of Arthur Radebaugh

Writing the article about Paleofuturismo I realized that many of the illustrations I found about the future made between the 1950s and 1960s had a very similar style. Pulling the thread and discovering that some of them showed the text “Closer Than We Think!”, I found Arthur Radebaugh, a futuristic illustrator, airbrush master and industrial designer. During his career he produced an extensive number of advertisements for the automotive industry and stood out for his artistic experimentation with fluorescent paint under black light.

Radebaugh’s greatest futuristic achievement was “Closer Than We Think!”, a cartoon depicting futuristic scenarios that appeared in more than 200 newspapers from 1958 to 1963. These strips represent mid-20th century futurism in its ultimate expression of boldness and optimism. From Robot Driving to Space Monkey Colonies, Radebaugh’s visions of the future have strongly influenced The Jetsons and many of his predictions have come true in the decades since the strip first appeared in the newspapers. Here you have a small selection:

I don’t know if you know, but independent filmmaker Brett Ryan Bonowicz launched an IndieGoGo campaign to create a documentary about Radebaugh and his futuristic vision. Although he didn’t manage to finish the campaign successfully, he produced the documentary anyway and finished it at the end of 2017. I haven’t been able to find it to watch it (yet) but here you have the trailer.

#365daysof #futurism #art #technology #day198