Kay Kato
American (1916-2006)
Kay Kato was one of the few well-known female cartoonists in her day. Her career spanned more than 60 years and produced 9,000 illustrations as well as many paintings. According to Kato, “Life is really a series of cartoons, if you have a sense of humor, and see it that way.”
Kato was born in Budapest, Hungary, and immigrated to the United States in the 1930s. She graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1941. Upon graduation she initially devoted her time to painting, but would soon turn her attention to humorous illustration. In 1959 she was listed in Who’s Who in American Women and in Who’s Who in American Art. She was a member of the American Society of Magazine Cartoonists. Kato became a regular guest on live television shows like Jack Paar and Jimmy Dean, where she would sketch caricatures of the likes of Bob Hope, King Hussein, and Shirley Temple Black. Her cartoons were featured in numerous publications such as The Newark Evening News, The Star Ledger, The Boston Globe, The New York Herald Tribune, The Saturday Evening Post, The New York Times Magazine, and the Christian Science Monitor. Kato exhibited at Boston Public Library, Vose Art Galleries, Montclair Art Museum, Newark Museum, Newark Public Library, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia, and the Advertising Club in New York, among others.