The Little Man is an illustration used in the San Francisco Chronicle to provide a shorthand language for cultural reviews as described here by American Theatre’s website:

“Created in 1942 by late cartoonist Warren Goodrich, he is a star rating system personified in the form of a bald white man in a theatre seat with five possible positions: In the first, he is leaping out of his seat, clapping so ecstatically hard that his bowler hat has been knocked to the floor, which means the Chronicle’s critic thinks your show is a must-see; in the next, he applauds enthusiastically, still a strong recommendation. In the third (and most contested) pose, he sits crisply at attention but does not clap, which connotes some liminal range between positive interest and polite indifference. The last two—nodding off or absent altogether—speak for themselves, albeit with exaggerated rudeness.”

Archival pigment print
24 x 36 in.
Edition of 5 + 2 artist’s proofs