By now news of Brad Holland’s death has reverberated throughout the illustration community. The New York Times Arts page published his obituary on April 13th and career retrospective on April 14th recounting his work at Playboy, The New York Times, and Time Magazine.
Long-time friend and colleague Steven Heller is sharing his mourning in stages and retelling interviews with Brad in his byline The Daily Heller on PRINT Magazine.
Jon Twingley (assistant and dear friend) first broke the news to Brad’s inner circle and then publicly via social media on April 4th. His post triggered stories, memories, and eulogies from fans and friends.

NYT may describe him as disruptive and subversive, neither word fits. Brad was a true Artist & Visual Philosopher. He was shy by nature, clear minded, and deeply introspective. Many people are inspired by his illustrative genius, but we knew him best as a fearless crusader for artists rights.

“The contest in which all of us are now engaged – whether we like it or not – transcends the nominal issues of copyright and reprographic royalties. These are just flash points in a greater contest as old as the legend of Faust.”
“The question of who will own and control access to the works we create goes to the heart of art itself and to the independence of the human spirit that underwrites creativity.”
– Brad Holland
Brad challenged those organizations taking illustrator’s secondary royalties, fought to defeat the Orphan Works Bills (twice), testified before Congress, founded the Illustrator’s Partnership of America, and was sued for establishing a collecting society.
Brad represented the interests of American and international illustrators at The American Assembly, on Capitol Hill, at the US Copyright Office, before the Small Business Administration, before the Federal Trade Commission, before the Massachusetts Attorneys General, and at the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations.
The website illustratorspartnership.org hosts hundreds of articles educating artists about their rights, royalties, collective licensing and legislation. His writings about the stockman cometh and orphan works are timeless — the parasitic business of image discounters — ring true for today’s generative AI.

Between 2004 and 2008, education would turn to advocacy. Through ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com, Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner spearheaded the opposition to two Orphan Works bills. Eighty-five creator organizations joined in opposing the legislation; more than 167,000 letters were sent to Congress opposing the bill. They narrowly defeated the 2006 and 2008 Orphan Works bills.
The American Society of Illustrators Partnership (ASIP-repro.org) was formed in 2007 to unite all genres of illustration and serve as a U.S. collecting society to return the reprographic royalty streams that illustrators have been denied. Finally, in 2019 … illustrators began filing claims and receiving reprographic royalty payments through the Artists Rights Society.
Even at age 81, Brad was prolific and painting. His blog, Poor Bradford’s Almanac, shows his last works published in the book It Happened in Salem. Brad currently has two one-man shows hanging. One at the Nuages Gallery in Milan. Another at the Galerie Martine Gossieaux in Paris, which is a collection of 40 paintings on Shakespeare, with an accompanying book. “Brad Holland and Shakespeare – The Stuff of Dreams.” It is the culmination of a personal project he was working on for the last 20 years.
All the illustrators now writing beautiful eulogies would honor Brad best by joining the ARS collecting society he worked so tirelessly to establish for them.