Rosalind Chast (born November 26, 1954) is an American

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and g ...

and a staff cartoonist for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''. Since 1978, she has published more than 800 cartoons in ''The New Yorker''. She also publishes cartoons in ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...

'' and the ''

Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, M ...

''. In recognition of her work,

Comics Alliance ComicsAlliance was an American website dedicated to covering the comic book industry as well as comic-related media, and is owned by Townsquare Media. The site has been nominated for multiple awards including a 2015 Eisner Award win in the catego ...

listed Chast as one of twelve women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition. She was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 2010. In May 2017, she received the Alumni Award for Artistic Achievement at the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

commencement ceremony.

Early life and education

Chast grew up in the Flatbush section of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, the only child of George Chast, a high school

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

teacher'','' and Elizabeth, an assistant principal in an elementary school. Her Jewish parents were children during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, and she has spoken about their extreme frugality.Audio (MP3)
/ref> She graduated from Midwood High School in Brooklyn, and attended

Kirkland College Kirkland College was a small, private liberal arts women's college located in Clinton, New York, from 1968 to 1978. It was named for Samuel Kirkland, who founded Hamilton College. Hamilton absorbed Kirkland on June 30, 1978, and now maintains ...

(which later merged with

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

). She studied at the

and received a BFA in painting in 1977. She also holds honorary doctorates from

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was founded in 1887 ...

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

, and the

Art Institute of Boston Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. As of 2018-19 Lesley University enrolled 6,593 students (2,707 undergraduate and 3,886 graduate). Histor ...

Lesley University Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. As of 2018-19 Lesley University enrolled 6,593 students (2,707 undergraduate and 3,886 graduate). History ...

;''The Masters Series: Roz Chast'' exhibition catalogue (New York: School of Visual Arts, 2018). and is a member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

Career

Chast's subjects often deal with domestic and family life. In a 2006 interview with comedian

Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominate ...

for the New Yorker Festival, Chast revealed that she enjoys drawing interior scenes, often involving lamps and accentuated wallpaper, to serve as the backdrop for her comics. Her comics reflect a "conspiracy of inanimate objects", an expression she credits to her mother. Her first ''New Yorker'' cartoon, ''Little Things'', was sold to the magazine in April 1978. The cartoon, which Chast describes as "peculiar and personal", shows a small collection of "Little Things"—strangely-named, oddly-shaped small objects such as "chent", "spak", and "tiv". Her ''New Yorker'' cartoons began as small black-and-white panels, but increasingly used more color and often appear over several pages. Her first cover for ''The New Yorker'' was the August 4, 1986 issue. Chast has written or illustrated more than a dozen books, including ''Unscientific Americans'', ''Parallel Universes'', ''Mondo Boxo'', ''Proof of Life on Earth'', ''The Four Elements'' and ''The Party After You Left: Collected Cartoons 1995–2003'' (Bloomsbury, 2004). In 2006, ''Theories of Everything: Selected Collected and Health-Inspected Cartoons, 1978–2006'' was published, collecting most of her cartoons from ''The New Yorker'' and other periodicals. One characteristic of her books is that the "author photo" is always a cartoon she draws of, presumably, herself. The title page, including the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

cataloging information, is also hand-lettered by Chast. Her book ''

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? ''Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?'' is a 2014 graphic memoir of American cartoonist and author Roz Chast. The book is about Chast's parents in their final years. Her father, George, died at the age of 95 and her mother, Elizabeth, w ...

'' is a graphic memoir, combining cartoons, text, and photographs to tell the story of an only child helping her elderly parents navigate the end of their lives. Chast is represented by the Danese/Corey gallery in Chelsea, New York City.

Personal life

Chast lives in

Ridgefield, Connecticut Ridgefield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Situated in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains, the 300-year-old community had a population of 25,033 at the 2020 census. The town center, which was formerly a borough ...

with her husband, humor writer Bill Franzen. They have two children.

Exhibitions

* ''"The Masters Series: Roz Chast"'' at

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

in New York City (2018) * ''"Cartoon Memoirs"'' at the

Contemporary Jewish Museum The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) is a non-collecting museum at 736 Mission Street at Yerba Buena Lane in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The museum, which was founded in 1984, is located in the historic ...

(2017) * ''"Cartoon Memoirs"'' at the

Museum of the City of New York A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

(2016) * ''"Cartoon Memoirs"'' at the Norman Rockwell Museum (2015)

Awards

* 2012 NYC Literary Honor in Humor * 2013 Inducted,

* 201
Kirkus Prize
winner for ''Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?'' * 2014

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".National Cartoonists Society The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

* 2015 20th Annual

Heinz Award The Heinz Awards are individual achievement honors given annually by the Heinz Family Foundation. The Heinz Awards each year recognize outstanding individuals for their innovative contributions in three areas: the Arts, the Economy and the Enviro ...

for the Arts and Humanities * 2018

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that we ...

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...

inductee

Bibliography

Articles and comic strips

* * * *

Books

* * * ''Three small books'' (Kathryn Markel, 1982) * ''Parallel Universes: Cartoons'' (Harper, 1984) * ''Poems and Songs'' (Ink, Inc., 1985) * ''Mondo Boxo'' (Harper, 1987) * ''The Four Elements'' (Harper, 1988) * ''Proof of Life on Earth'' (Harper, 1991) * ''Childproof'' (Hyperion, 1997) * ''The Party, After You Left'' (Bloomsbury, 2004) * ''Theories of Everything: Selected, Collected, and Health-Inspected Cartoons, 1978-2006'' (Bloomsbury, 2008) * ''Too Busy Marco'' (Atheneum, 2010) * ''What I Hate: From A to Z'' (Bloomsbury, 2011) * ''A Friend for Marco'' (Atheneum, 2012) * ''Marco Goes to School'' (Atheneum, 2012) * ''Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?'' (Bloomsbury, 2014) * ''Roz Chast: Cartoon Memoirs'' (Norman Rockwell Museum, 2015) * ''Around the Clock'' (Atheneum, 2015) * ''The Best American Comics 2016'' (editor) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016) * ''Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York'' (Bloomsbury, 2017) * Marx, Patricia. ''You Can Only Yell at Me for One Thing at a Time'' (illustrated by Roz Chast), (New York: Celadon Books, 2020)

References

External links

*
Video: Roz Chast interview with comedian Steve Martin at the 2006 New Yorker FestivalInterview with Roz Chast in ''Newsday'', 2006Interview with Roz Chast on NPR's "Fresh Air," 2014.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chast, Roz 1954 births Living people American female comics artists American women cartoonists American magazine illustrators The New Yorker cartoonists Jewish American artists Jewish humorists Rhode Island School of Design alumni People from Flatbush, Brooklyn People from Ridgefield, Connecticut Midwood High School alumni Women humorists Harvey Award winners Members of the American Philosophical Society Kirkus Prize winners American cartoonists