Brown Theatre Caricatures

George Joseph (1912 - 1972, American)

Airbrushed caricatures

Located at the Brown Theatre, 315 West Broadway, Louisville, KY.

Displayed in the Brown Theatre lobby is a collection of caricatures honoring stage personalities who have appeared there. including Carol Channing, Roy Milland, Myrna Loy, Farley Granger, and Tallulah Bankhead.

George Joseph was a talented editorial cartoonist and caricaturist for The Courier-Journal and the Louisville Times beginning in 1937. He studied for two years at the University of Louisville and for one year at the Louisville Art Academy. Joseph was a first generation American as his parents immigrated from Beirut in what was the Ottoman Empire. He was born in Ohio and spent most of his life in Louisville, where he gained a national reputation for mastering the use of airbrush to create caricatures.

Before Joseph started doing it, airbrush was primarily used for technical drawings. Other artists soon began copying his methods, but he remained at the forefront of the technique. Joseph was also an accomplished watercolorist and his work appeared in many issues of The Courier-Journal as well as in shows across the city of Louisville. A large oil mural created by Joseph is owned by the Kentucky Derby Museum. His work was reproduced in many newspapers, Newsweek, and London Cavalcade. According to a Courier Journal article, one was also included in the Encyclopedia Brittanica Yearbook 1941.