About Vintage TV Art

THE COMPANY

Vintage TV Art preserves and distributes the library of authentic, historic, one-of-a-kind television advertising art created by Robert M. Thompson from the 1950's through the 1980's. This work is available to fans, art buyers, art collectors and interior design professionals. This is an exclusive online gallery offering gallery-quality reproductions at varying price points depending on value, cultural importance and subject matter interest.

OUR COMMITMENT

Vintage TV Art takes great pride in presenting this body of work originally produced for the television and newspaper industries. Reproductions of the original press proof artwork are available for sale, produced on archival paper suitable for framing in stamped, numbered limited editions signed by his sons who manage the Robert M. Thompson Estate and Vintage TV Art. These editions are carefully curated according to the legal requirements for limited-edition artwork.

Dragnet

BIOGRAPHY

ROBERT M. THOMPSON

Robert M. Thompson was a prolific illustrator in the Los Angeles advertising business from the mid 1950’s through his retirement in the 1990s. When Don Draper of the “Mad Men” television show stepped off the airplane in Los Angeles, Robert Thompson was already there, working with the top advertising agencies and entertainment companies in this city.
Robert managed his own graphic design business. One of his clients was a New York syndication group that distributed illustrations for local newspaper TV pages and program guides across the U.S. His illustrations showcased new shows from Andy Griffith, Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock, while celebrating the variety hours of Ed Sullivan, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Lucille Ball. Thompson died in 1997 at seventy-one, but his lively portraits have attracted renewed interest in MidCentury Modern themes.

THE ARTWORK

This collection represents a chronicle of popular television programming from the 1950’s through the 1980’s. There are no known collections of the original art, which is presumed to have been destroyed after its original use. There are also no known collections of the printed reproductions of the artwork, which was syndicated and produced locally by newspapers across the United States. These illustrations are unique, and not known to be in existence in any other form of media at this time. The likenesses and settings are not reproduced from any one photograph but were creative montages from the imagination of Robert Thompson.

PROVENANCE

Robert M. Thompson’s original pen and ink illustrations were sent to the client in New York. Multi-color press proofs, printed on newsprint, were then created and sent to him in California for his approval. These press proofs were preserved in covered boxes away from heat and light for more than 40 years, discovered by his family upon his death in 1997.
These items were then preserved by his estate and stored away from air, light and heat. They are being scanned and printed in limited numbered editions of 250 prints each at the size 12" x 18", and signed by the sons of Robert M. Thompson, who operate Vintage TV Art. His family established Vintage TV Art to reproduce and distribute this artwork.