AUTO HISTORY

Motor Illustrator: Frank Ingoglia

June 1955 cover. About to put a price sticker on a yellow convertible on special sale, a cigar-smoking used car salesman looks up to see the start of a downpour. Other technicians cleaning the car stop their work.

Frank Ingoglia (April 14, 1907 — June 14, 1998), born in Brooklyn of Italian descent, was an illustrator who spent seventy years in the business. At age 9, he won the Wanamaker Award in a citywide contest for school children. He was beset by a long childhood illness but overcame it and became interested in fencing, competing for the New York Athletic Club (1926-1938) and as a member of the U.S. Olympic fencing team in 1936.

He completed two years of high school before going on to graduate from Newark's Fawcett School of Design and New York's Art Students League, where he studied under George Bridgman (figure drawing), Alvin Kleinfeld, and Kimon Nicolaides (drawing). During World War II, he designed the instructional manual for the Sperry Gyroscope Corp. He also worked on Army and Navy recruiting materials.

His career in design and illustration included work for numerous newspapers and periodicals, including Bluebook, The American, and MoToR. His mid-fifties MoToR illustrations depicted humorous everyday situations, with a car in the background. In the fifties, Ingoglia turned to portraiture, studying with Jerry Farnsworth, Robert Phillips, Wallace Bassford, and Sam Oppenheim. Several of his subjects were Army generals, and he was represented by Portraits, Inc.

He was married to fellow artist Danis Gerdes.

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