Jon Gnagy (January 13, 1907 – March 7, 1981) was a self-taught artist most remembered for being America's original television art instructor, hosting You Are an Artist, which began on the NBC network and included analysis of paintings from the Museum of Modern Art, and his later syndicated Learn to Draw series.
[4] The Philadelphia-based Martin F. Weber Company still manufactures Gnagy's drawing kits.
His biography, published in the catalogue of An Exhibition of Paintings and Litho-Drawings (Idyllwild, California, 1964), told of his early life: During the early part of World War II, Gnagy taught camouflage techniques at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
[8] On May 13, 1946, Jon Gnagy was the first "act" on the first television program broadcast from the new WNBT channel 4 antenna atop the Empire State Building.
[9] Author and illustrator Richard Egielski, in the October 2011 issue of BookPage, described Gnagy as his childhood hero, writing, "I drew along with him every week."