The Old Print Shop

Warren Newcombe

1894-1960

Warren Newcombe was an American painter, printmaker, film director and innovative visual effects artist. He won two Academy Awards for Best Special Effects - "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (1944) and "Green Dolphin Street" (1947). Formally trained at the Boston Normal Art School, Newcombe started his career as a portrait painter. He produced his first film in the 1920s, which influenced him to continue with special effects. One of those films was "The Enchanted City" (1922), which is considered the earliest known example of an American live-action animated film.

In 1925, Newcombe was hired by MGM, where he worked as a matte painter until 1957, painting backdrop cells for films that could not afford to produce them as a functional set. His innovative matte painting methods would be used on the "Wizard of Oz” production two decades later, a production for which he worked as supervisor in the matte painting department. Traditionally, matte paintings were produced on glass. Newcombe's method instead utilized crayon pastels on large sheets of black cardboard. His technique was so well regarded, any shot using the technique became known as a "Newcombe shot" within the studio. Other notable films he worked on include "Tarzan the Ape Man" (1932), "Brigadoon" (1954) and "Forbidden Planet" (1956). He remained with MGM until 1957.

In his free time, Newcombe worked as a fine art painter and printmaker. His style in the late 1920s reflected the popular American Regionalist ideals and were exhibited around the country. This included solo exhibitions at Wilshire Art Gallery in Los Angeles (1929) and Weyhe Gallery in New York City (1932). He discovered lithography during the Great Depression, when the painting market floundered due to the country’s financial duress. Printmaking grew to amazing heights during this period because of its affordability and many painters, including Newcombe, made the transition between mediums. He began working with the Associated American Group during this period, which helped push his name even more widely across the country.

 

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