Richard Baratz Draws 'Em Like He Sees 'Em
By Robert Simonson
Over the years, Baratz and Sardi's co-owner Max Klimavicius established a system by which new caricatures are created. The decision as to who gets honored appears to be up to Klimavicius (though one imagines he is frequently the target of pleas and suggestions from angling publicists and talent agents looking to promote their show or client).
Klimavicius then sends a picture of the subject by computer. (Baratz — who also works as engraver for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, designing stock certificates and traveler's checks — moved to Texas in 2003.) Many times the artist does not know they're about to be framed and placed on Sardi's storied walls. Baratz works out an 11-by-14-inch sketch in pencil or pen and ink (pictures of New York City Mayors are slightly larger). "I look at the photo very carefully, and see what interested me in their personality. Usually I know them from their stage work, and I try to grab something out of that."
He then sends it by UPS to Max for approval. "Sometimes I have to redraw it many times," said Baratz. "It is a process. Max has a very good eye for that. He knows these people."
One subject he had trouble getting quite right was La Cage aux Folles actor Gene Barry. "I did him like six times," Baratz remembered. "Even the waiters used to make fun of me. 'Oh, he's coming with another Gene Barry.'" Finally, Barry himself put a stop to the endless attempts. "He sat with his agent one day for lunch. The agent asked the waiter to bring one of the drawings over. He liked it and ended up signing it. And it went on the wall."
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Once the caricature is completed, the artist is invited to see it, and the drawing is toasted over Champagne in a brief ceremony. Typically the honored subject is pleased — or, if they're not pleased, they keep their mouths shut, considering themselves fortunate to be in the Sardi's pantheon.
There is, however, the rare bird who doesn't want the caricature at all.
"Years ago I did critic Walter Kerr," told Baratz, "who had already been done by the previous caricaturist. Mr. Sardi said, 'It's about time we do Jean Kerr,'" referring to Kerr's playwright wife, who wrote Mary, Mary , among other works. "So I called Mr. Kerr and he was very polite on the phone. He was thrilled. He said, 'I'll get Jean.' She gets on the phone, and she said, 'Mr. Baratz, you're 30 years too late.' Boom! She hung up the phone."
Marie Osmond and Donny Osmond with their caricatures
photo by Aubrey Reuben
