[Marlboro College] [Military] American Soldier Gib Taylor's "Annual Reports", 1951-1954. Germany, France, and the United States

[Marlboro College][Military] American Soldier Gib Taylor "Annual Reports", 1951-1954. Germany, France, and the United States

Archive consists of a variety of mediums including two journals, watercolors, pen and ink, photographs and pencil sketches. Overall, the collection is in very good condition. The two journals have some disbound pages which have been taped using cello tape which has become brown.

Gilbert "Gib" Clinton Taylor (1929-2006) was born on Deer Isle, Maine and attended Harvard College (1947-49) and the Art Students League (1949-51). He was in the Army 1951-1953 stationed overseas, returning to school in New York. Following service in the U. S. Army, he enrolled in the American School of Art (1954-57). For 30 years, Mr. Taylor taught design, color, and woodworking at Marlboro College in Vermont. According to his obituary, "While teaching, he continued to live an active creative life, producing masterful art in a variety of fields, including painting, drawing, sculpture, fine furniture and cabinetry, musical instrument-building, and an occasional whimsical wooden toy."

From an exhibition of Gib Taylor's artwork in 2017, fellow artist and friend David Rohn said, "Gib loved color dominating a large area, the effusiveness of it. His paintings have the purity of the simple blotch of color, very natural, very influenced by Matisse. His drawings emphasize the pleasure of the line skating across the paper in large sweeping strokes. There's a light touch, a fluidity. The work is as much about that as about what he was drawing."

Taylor stated in a biographical sketch about his work, I spent "my most formative years as an artist in New York City, and was influenced by the Abstract Expressionists, but most particularly Mark Rothko, and most recently by Jules Olitski, this in painting. My interest in constructions stems from an admiration of the work of Jean Tinguely and out of a friendship with Richard Stankiewicz. Bernard Langlais, a fellow Maine-ian, just encouraged me to expand into wood constructions, he having devoted his entire output to the same." Taylor also remarks about his use of color, "How one color affects or qualifies another is my main preoccupation [...] rather than blending two colors to make a third, I like to intersperse one over another so that the nature of the first is changed by the nature of the second...I like to apply paint in such a way that negative space defines positive space. The outlines of an object are defined by its background."

Knowing Taylor's success as a life-long artist, truly informs us to his early work while a soldier as presented in this archive.

Gib Taylor's Annual Reports (1951-1954) are a personal and comical account that, in words and
images, recount his post-war service for the American Army in Germany and France, and a
disappointing return to the United States.
The reports evolve from two pocket volumes of character sketches made during his wartime service in Germany, into large format elaborate street scenes and narratives of Frankfurt, Würzburg, and Paris; and afterwards of his return home to the United States, where he first resided in Boston, and later New York City. Back in the United States, Taylor found difficulty finding employment.

He eventually obtained work at General Electric. Two of his advertisements for the company are enclosed in the 1953 Annual Report plus an original full page full color calligraphic fictitious ad for a GE automatic water heater. However, his time at General Electric seems to have been brief and unhappy. In the same report, he described General Electric as "such a bunch of small, self-righteous, bastards." His employment both began and ended in the year of the report, and his bitter assessment may indicate that he was fired. Soon after, Taylor obtained work carrying beef from box cars, for the meat vendors Swift and Company, followed by other blue-collar employment until he struck out for New York City in 1954, and became an art student. The reports seem to comprise an elaborate Christmas card for select family and friends.

Taylor's inaugural attempt at an annual report is much cruder and personal than the later
versions. The pocket size sketchbook records the daily life of the American soldier in Post-War
Germany in hurried pencil drawings. At the beginning of the first volume, Taylor explicitly offers the disclaimer that all characters depicted are fictitious. However, a few names are assigned, so the truth may lie somewhere between. Without doubt, many of Taylor's images are meant to be humorous, and his color commentary peppered throughout suggests that this first "publication" straddles the line between
documentary and caricature.

Much of Taylor's artwork feels as though he is slyly joking with his audience while documenting what he has seen throughout Europe. Images likely are nuanced and perhaps have multiple meanings. He is, however, blatant and critical of the allies in Europe in his 1953 report. "Said town [Wurzburg] was, prior to an unfortunately stupid missile-mission of the allies, just about one of the best baroque cities in Europe. There was absolutely no reason for the bombing, save perhaps a rather obscure "morale factor" and in the process the world lost a pretty bit of irredeemable architecture..."

A trip to Paris yields this observation: "Snatching a glance at Notre Dame (I didn't go in--protestant, you know) I hurried over to the nearest book stall to see what latest bits of gaelic pornography were being offered there. Nothing much being found (I did see some very fine prints of Norman Rockwells by the way). He also describes a visit to Folies Bergere; "burlesque has never known a more nude nude."

ANNUAL REPORT VOL. I, 1951: Being a Source of Enlightenment to Small Women:
Profusely Illustrated, Many in Color. Predominantly pencil drawings. Pen and ink
colored illustrations inserted. 5" x 7 ¾". 150pp. Hand-illustrated dust jacket. Pencil drawings and captioning. Copious studies of post-war American military types on and off duty are represented. Taylor depicts a variety of soldier activities while stationed in Germany. The assortment ranges from drilling with a bayonet, to polishing boots, to receiving a vaccination, to playing pinball. 13 Pen and ink-colored illustrations. The pen and ink illustrations are typically, but not always, worked-up from a pencil sketch. The caricature quality of Taylor's work is more developed in the illustrations. Some topics include: gunners, camping, and crawling.

ANNUAL REPORT VOL. II, 1951: Being a Source of Enlightenment to Small
Women: Profusely Illustrated, Many in Color. Predominantly pencil and ink drawings.
Pen and ink-colored illustrations inserted. 5" x 7 ¾". 152pp. Hand-illustrated dust jacket.
Pencil and ink drawings and captioning. Copious studies of post-war American military types on and off duty are represented. In the second volume, Taylor continues his depictions of a soldier's day-to-day life in Germany. A sample of activities and types in this book include visiting the barber, physical exercise, boxing, as well as images of Red Cross personnel, and a drawing of the "pretentious pistol" -the Howitzer.
14 Pen and ink colored illustrations. More examples include: a soldier in an army jeep, a bagpipe player, a person in a wheelchair, and a black soldier named "Sam."

1952 DAS JAHRES-BERICHT: Überreich Illustriert [1952 ANNUAL REPORT: Profusely
Illustrated]. Pen and ink, some illustrations colored. 10 ½" x 13 ½". Titles and captions in
German, limited English for explanatory purposes. 36 Pen & ink illustrated images on board, some colored. (Subjects are of everyday
German life, maybe in Frankfurt, illustrated from an American soldier's perspective. A coon skin hat, pasted onto some images, literally places the American eye within the frame. There is particular emphasis on elaborate German-made vehicles such as trucks, trains, streetcars and ships. The thematically adjacent topic of street signs is also treated with visuals and English explanation. German clothing such as lederhosen and feather hats are a further focal point, along with many representations of animals. A running joke about storks permeates the report, possibly pointing to the post-war baby boom.

For his 1952 Annual Report, Taylor appears to have been stationed in Frankfurt, Germany with the American army. This year, his attention is drawn to fairly quotidian street scenes with a particular emphasis on vehicles and people. As usual, he brings a sense of humor to his images as he makes "an account of occupation with things unfamiliar, and related." He deploys caricature to bring a sense of whimsy and the absurd to his foreign encounters and make them accessible to his audience back in the United States. Written and visual puns permeate the work. One example is when Taylor
illustrates the cranes alongside a child's toy construction crane, and captions the image "Der Storch ist von das Kran Familie" (The Stork is from the Crane family).

ANNUAL REPORT 1953: Profusely Illustrated. Pen and ink, some illustrations colored,
b/w photographs. 11 ½" x 14 ½". 3 General Electric Advertisements, including inside back of portfolio cover 28 Pen & ink illustrated images on board, some colored. (8 Germany, 7 France, 12 United States, 1 unknown).13 b/w photographs (The majority of photographs were taken in Paris, some of the more memorable images include a merry-go-round at Rue Montmartre, booksellers along the Seine,
and a "bunch of codgers." There is also a small photograph of the publication itself.)
4 sheets subscriber promotional material
2 envelopes, (1 postmarked 1953, 1 without name or address that includes a brief personal
note). The tone of the post-War subject matter represented is both satirical and cynical. Taylor offers caricatures of American soldiers, as well as German, French and American ethnographic types encountered throughout his journeys. Topics depicted include: the Würzburg residences of the Princes of Frankonia, Parisian Street and market scenes, train travel, and Europe's destitute. Upon his return to Boston, Taylor also captures his underwhelming home and work life.

The 1953 Annual Report is the third installment in Taylor's humorous narrative of his time
abroad in Post-War Germany and France, and ultimately his return home to the United States. A letter to "subscribers" accompanies his report, but the personal content of his report suggests
that the "publication" may actually be more akin to an elaborate Christmas letter intended for
family or friends. Through words and caricatures, Taylor satirically recounts his time abroad with the United States military. His drawings and prose begin in the bombed city of Würzburg, where the HQ of the 1st Division had just relocated. He then proceeds to Paris, where Taylor suggests that the military travel to investigate criminality. Finally, the report narrates a humble return to the
United States, where Taylor finds lodging with a widow, her 2 children, and parakeet; purchases
a dubious car and finds new employment with the meat sellers Swift and Company.

ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1954 PRESENTS THE DOUBLE LIFE OF DR. G.: With
Choreography by G. Taylor, With Assistance of Dale Carnegie: Profusely Illustrated. Pen and ink and 1 watercolor. 11" x 13 ¾". 19 Pen & ink illustrated images on board, 3 pages with gilt features. Some pages have pencil drawings on the back. 1 watercolor of a dog being christened. 1 envelope and letter that offers context to his "subscribers," the McKennons and Crosses, about the 1954 Annual Report. Subjects include self-portraits of Taylor's work. In one, he carries beef (a cow slung over his shoulders in the image!) from box cars at Swift & Co, and two others depict his time at the shipyard as both an electrical laborer and ship letterer. Other scenes reflect Taylor's time in New York from his daily commutes to life drawing classes, to images which reflect his general frustrations with life. To show his night job at the bank, Taylor visualizes his stomach as a typewriter, a crank protrudes from his ears, and his eyes fill with numbers, as a ticker tape unfurls from his mouth.

The 1954 edition of Taylor's annual report continues to chronicle his return to the United States. He left Swift & Co, and during the past summer, did electrical work at a shipyard, and later, the ship's lettering. At the moment of writing, Taylor had relocated to New York City to attend art school, and was making ends meet by working nights at the Chase National Bank. He uses self-deprecating humor to show his own arrival to NYC in head-to-toe Daniel Boone-esque attire, and continues the motif of the coon skin hat. His jaundiced view of the world persists, as he yearns for a Rolls Royce in one image, and watches pigeons with his newly acquired Audubon Society membership in another. However, most images track quite closely to his day-to-day experiences at work and play.

Additional items in the archive include: Untitled Grey Folder 10 ½" x 14" containing pen and ink drawings, photographs, watercolors.

17 b/w photographs Includes: 2 self-portraits, a group art class photo, various German street scenes, and art/architectural images.

10 pen and ink drawings with comical and varied subjects.

4 watercolors of matter which is comical and varied. One image is a Valentine.

1 large postcard of an extra-large handmade postcard

All in all, a delightful, playful, wholly original and at times critical collection of drawings, artwork and narrative from Gib Taylor covering three years of service in Europe and his return to the states.