Frank McIntosh
Frank H. McIntosh was born on July 17, 1901, in Portland, Oregon, and is sometimes recorded under the spelling Frank MacIntosh. He moved to San Francisco to study art and graduated from the California School of Fine Arts. He kept a studio in San Francisco in 1923 and 1924 before continuing his studies in New York City and Paris. By the early 1930s he had settled in Los Angeles, where he joined the faculty of the Chouinard Art Institute. His work was exhibited at Bullock’s in Los Angeles in 1931 and at the Chouinard Gallery the following year. In 1940 he maintained a studio in New York City. During the 1960s he ran a gallery in Los Angeles dealing in Asian paintings and objets d’art. It was a fitting second act for an artist whose illustration career had centered on Asia and the Pacific. McIntosh died on May 29, 1985, in Santa Cruz, California, at the age of 83.
McIntosh made his name in the 1920s and 1930s as a prolific cover artist for Asia magazine, an American publication devoted to the peoples and cultures of the East. His covers included a September 1925 scene of a spotted leopard confronting a coiled orange serpent and a 1927 portrait titled Hill Woman of Assam. The original cover paintings were executed in watercolor and gouache on small boards, and examples have since appeared at auction. Between 1935 and 1940, Matson Lines, whose cruise ships sailed from San Francisco to Hawaii and the South Pacific, commissioned him to produce vividly colored airbrush designs. His output ranged from luggage tags to menu covers, with the menus appearing in the dining rooms of liners such as the Lurline and the Malolo. A 1939 luggage sticker and ticket envelope were followed by a set of six menu covers, which passengers kept as souvenirs and which collectors and decorators still prize today. The imagery drew on Hawaiian life, from tropical fruit platters to luaus, and offered a vivid escape to Americans weary of cold winters. Matson’s postwar expansion brought further work, including a surfer poster from the early 1950s, and by the early 1960s he was producing menu covers and travel posters that depicted the South Pacific, from Hawaii to Tahiti. His work remains in demand with collectors, and his auction record has been reset several times, most recently in 2025 by a group of his vintage menu covers.
McIntosh built his images from flat planes of saturated color and stylized tropical foliage, giving exotic subjects the clean geometry of Art Deco graphic design. His compositions favored flattened perspective and decorative framing, and for his Matson work he turned to the airbrush to achieve smooth, luminous gradations of color. A romantic, idealized vision of Asia and the Pacific runs through all of it, presenting distant places as lush and glamorous.
Key Influences
- Asia Magazine Covers: His covers gave the magazine a recognizable Art Deco identity throughout the 1920s and 1930s.
- Matson Menu Covers: His menu designs became treasured souvenirs and lasting symbols of Hawaii travel between the wars.
- Hawaiian Travel Imagery: His lush island scenes shaped how Americans pictured Hawaii in the age of the ocean liner.
- Travel Ephemera: His menus and luggage labels turned everyday travel items into sought-after collectibles.
- Art Deco Illustration: His flattened, color-driven style brought Art Deco graphic design to American magazine and travel art.
If you are interested in further stories of the artists who shaped Art Deco, return to our artists page to browse the full directory.
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