A gruesome map of the world, published in 'Life Magazine', showing the spread of all major tropical diseases, all but one identified by sinister emoji-style tokens. Malaria, the most pervasive of the vectors, covers much of the tropical regions of the world with a blanket of red, a terrifying background to all the others.
A key below the map identifies, and explains, the causes and major symptoms of: Malaria, Yellow Fever, Denque, Typhus, Plague, Cholera, Sleeping Sickness, Tularemia, Rocky Mountain Fever, Japanese River Fever, Relapsing Fever, Helminthic Diseases, Yaws, Leprosy, and Leishmaniasis.
Boris Artzybasheff (1899-1965), son of Russian author, M.P. Artsybasev, was born in Kharkov, in the Ukraine. In 1919 he left Russia, and after "a long and often harrowing journey" he settled in New York. He worked initially as an engraver, designing labels for beer and medicine bottles, graduating to more creative work for newspapers, set designs for the Ziegfeld Theater and Michael Fokine's Russian Ballet, and book illustration.
In 1940 the editors of 'Fortune' commissioned Artzybasheff "to design a cover for the magazine. The artist had already created several colorful graphs and charts to illustrate articles in the magazine when he submitted a painting of a Japanese soldier standing before a large sculpted head of the Buddha. This cover art attracted the attention of 'Time' magazine editors who were assembling a staff of illustrators to create their cover designs. Before his death in 1965 Artzybasheff created more than 200 covers for 'Time' including portraits of Stalin, Hitler, Truman, Mao Tse Tung, and Ho Chi Minh" (Iacono).
However, Artzybasheff's is best known for his paintings and drawings of mechanized humans. "These pictures, which often border on the surreal, display a keen sense of how the machine works or what human task the machine was meant to replace. The image of animated weapons of war and tyranny that were created for 'Life' magazine demonstrate how men can create monsters that are real and deadly" (Domenic J. Iacono, Syracuse University Art Collection online)