Beloved pop artist James Rizzi dies at 61

NEW YORK - James Rizzi applied his playful, cartoon-style art on unusual projects worldwide, from Volkswagen beetle and Japanese ad to train a cow sculpture in New York and on the first page of a German newspaper.

His works include images of German postage stamps and tourist guide in New York published this year. He was the official artist for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and the soccer World Cup games in France.

"With his art, what you see is what you get," said Alexander Lieventhal, the Performing Arts 28 GmbH & Co. KG in Stuttgart, Germany, which manages and sells the work of Rizzi. "Any child can look at it and realized that he was trying to convey: a celebration of life."

Rizzi, a native of Brooklyn, died Monday at his new studio-York at the age of 61. He had a heart condition, Lieventhal said.

Rizzi studied art at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where his innovative methods began with a three-dimensional structures, which evolved from a young failed.

With his classes in painting, prints and sculpture, he had to pass in for evaluation in all three subjects. But Rizzi managed to complete only one, twice a printed etching, with parts of a single cut and mounted on top of another with a wire.

Lieventhal described it as "a combination of print and sculpture, which creates a 3D-effect."

Rizzi was stuck with the novelty, upbringing, when he returned to New York, where he made his name as a street artist painting.

In 1976 he took part in the "Thirty Years of American Printmarking" at the Brooklyn Museum. Four years later, he designed the cover for the first album of new wave group called the Tom Tom Club.

Rizzi decided on amazing aesthetic areas.

In New York, he created a limited edition of subway fare MetroCard-payment system for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. His work has also appeared in the "Cow Parade", an exhibition of sculptures made of fiberglass is displayed in New York City public places.

Rizzi enjoyed some of his greatest successes in Germany and Asia.

There, he designed a ring coat for a boxer Henry Maske, porcelain company Rosenthal, the first page of the newspaper in Hamburg, and some car art - ". New Beetle" toy sized fire truck and three versions of the 1999 Volkswagen

In 1996, Lufthansa Airlines commissioned him to decorate the jet with the stars, birds and other travelers.

Schools in Duisburg named Ricci, in 2001, came the opening of its office building in Brunswick, called "Happy Rizzi House". Last year, oval stained glass ceiling "Rizzi Dome" was presented at one of the largest shopping centers in Europe, shops in Oberhausen.

He created the ads for a Japanese railroad, and when he sat down aircraft in Germany, "the flight attendants asked for his autograph."

Rizzi was divorced and had no children. Survivors include his mother, brother and sister.