The Al Hirschfeld Foundation proudly announces the latest addition to your bookshelf, Hirschfeld’s Icons: A Poster Book, to be published by Abrams ComicArts on April 28, 2026. Following the success of the USA Today best-seller Hirschfeld's Sondheim, this second volume in the series of deluxe oversized 11 x 14-inch Hirschfeld poster books offers a visual journey through seven decades of pop culture history, featuring icons such as Julie Andrews, Charlie Chaplin, Chita Rivera, Richard Pryor, Ray Charles, and the Marx Brothers. Each portrait showcases Hirschfeld's unmistakable linear calligraphy, both in black and white and in color, that originally appeared on posters, album covers, and the pages of most major publications for over 80 years. Preorder today with special merchandise (available for a limited time).
“To be a star on Broadway is to have one’s name in lights, yes, but it is also, and more significantly, to be drawn by Hirschfeld,” wrote Brendan Gill.
With an introduction by TV icon Dick Cavett, and curated and written by David Leopold, Creative Director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation, Hirschfeld's Icons is a collection of 25 removable, ready-to-frame prints that showcase the artist's genius to evoke the essence of celebrated figures across arts and culture. The innovative format of Hirschfeld's Icons allows readers to see the works as never before, and presented as a stunning coffee table book at an accessible price point, making Hirschfeld's works widely available to fans and collectors everywhere. Accompanying these vibrant prints are expert commentaries and biographies by Leopold, the foremost authority on the artist's work, offering historical context, behind-the-scenes stories, and additional images from the Hirschfeld archives.
“Awards are nice, but for many performers, being captured in pen and ink by Hirschfeld was the ultimate honor,” says David Leopold. “It meant they were part of a tradition; a portrait gallery that included some of the biggest names in popular culture. It also meant that they were immortalized—indelible as any tattoo and monumental as any statue. After all, more people saw Hirschfeld’s drawing of a performance than those who saw the actual production itself.”
"And so, this book,” observes Dick Cavett in his introduction. "A parade of Hirschfeld icons—frameable posters with erudite descriptions to remind or teach the reader what we need to know about these depicted giants. To gather them in one place is to gather much of the twentieth century’s theatrical memory. If you squint long enough, it is a kind of American history. Yours to linger over, laugh with, and occasionally gasp at—as if you are again breathless in Row G, watching the lights dim, while a Hirschfeld sketch has somehow leapt from your program and onto the stage. These drawings are, to my eye, the closest ink has come to applause."
Available wherever you buy books on April 28, 2026. Preorder a signed copy today with special merchandise available only for a limited time at AlHirschfeldFoundationShop.org.
Look for events across the country this spring to celebrate the publication of Hirschfeld’s Icons.
