Posted by ~V~ in : Images, Picture of the Day ,
because an image speaks volumes in an instant.
(click on any image to enlarge)
James (Jim) Flora (1914-1998) is best-known for his wild jazz and classical album covers for Columbia Records (late 1940s) and RCA Victor (1950s).
He authored and illustrated 17 popular children’s books and flourished for decades as a magazine illustrator. Few realize, however, that Flora was also a prolific fine artist with a devilish sense of humor and a flair for juxtaposing playfulness, absurdity and violence…
Flora’s album covers pulsed with angular hepcats bearing funnel-tapered noses and shark-fin chins who fingered cockeyed pianos and honked lollipop-hued horns. Yet this childlike exuberance was subverted by a tinge of the diabolic. Flora wreaked havoc with the laws of physics, conjuring flying musicians, levitating instruments, and wobbly dimensional perspectives.
On some Flora figures, three legs and five arms were standard equipment, with spare eyeballs optional. His rarely seen fine artworks reflect the same comic yet disturbing qualities. Jim Flora once said that all he wanted to do was “create a little piece of excitement.”
He overshot his goal with much of his work.
~ from jimflora.com
books: The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora | The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora
links: official site | blog | interview | Wikipedia
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