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From 1957 to 1966 Safran was a member of the influential group of Time magazine cover artists known internally as "the stable", which included Boris Artzybasheff, Boris Chaliapin, and Robert Vickrey.
During this period he painted over seventy-three cover portraits of leading celebrities and newsmakers. Thirty-six of the original paintings are now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution's The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Many of the remaining cover portraits were presented to the famous individuals depicted.
When Safran was assigned a cover portrait, he normally worked alone to develop the content and composition, which would echo the theme of the article. Newsstand sales were dependant on the visual impact of the cover, and Safran frequently created an extreme three-dimensionality in these portraits, in order to make them instantly compelling.
The shortest deadline he had to make was two and a half days, for the portrait of Germany's Ludwig Erhard (October 28, 1957), but generally he was given a lead time of about two weeks.
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