Lászlo Roth, New Yorker Spot Artist

The history of New Yorker spot drawings is rife with mysteries. Far less is known about the spots than about the cartoons or covers created for the magazine. Some are by familiar names—Otto Soglow, James Thurber, Arthur Getz, Abe Birnbaum—with familiar, even unmistakeable, styles. Others, though, are by less familiar, or sometimes frankly obscure, artists. Identifying these illustrators is often challenging. Signatures may be illegible, or mere initials, or absent altogether. In my June 27 post, I noted a long-forgotten spot drawing signed with only a first name, Lászlo, from the issue of June 19, 1978. It depicts children on a camel ride, very likely the one at the Bronx Zoo. Who might Lászlo be, I wondered. There are any number of artists with the name, but none is widely known for working at The New Yorker.

Or so I thought. The answer, I believe, was to be found all along on eBay. A series of original works of greeting card art by illustrator Lászlo Roth (1921-1996) had been listed on the auction site since at least October of 2020 and was eventually sold for an undisclosed price (less than $200) on July 19, 2021. Promisingly, Roth signed his name Lászlo with an acute accent over the á (but not the o).

The eBay listing identifies him as a New Yorker artist and, in this case, that might even be accurate. Lászlo's technique seems very versatile, and his style shifts from one group of subjects to the next. Unfortunately, the eBay listing gives no examples of the artist's work on scratchboard, which is apparently what he used for the New Yorker spot. Still, he seems to be the Lászlo we're looking for.