Customer Reviews

Air Combat Paintings

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To many, Robert Taylor is THE military aviation artist par excellence. In the past decades, no one has equalled his appeal not to mention his output. AIR COMBAT PAINTINGS, MASTERWORKS COLLECTION, published in 2001, presents 60 Taylor paintings done in the past quarter century. As with other Taylor books, it's a breathtaking example of a master artist at work!

With two exceptions, the 60 aircraft depicted in AIR COMBAT PAINTINGS are of World War I and II vintage. (The odd men out are a Vietnam-era F-4 and an F-16 from the Kosovo conflict). Arranged in no discernible order, they portray Se5As, B-17s, F4Us, Bf 109s, Lancasters, Spits, P-51s, SBDs, Typhoons, Vals and other warplanes in various combat, flight or ground scenes. The print is on one page; the facing page containing info on the painting and/or detail close-ups or a remarque.

Taylor's artistry is everywhere evident. Few artists can match his vibrancy, technical accuracy, eye for detail, dynamic presentations and so on. There are so many evocative images in this book it's hard to pick favorites but here's some of my picks: Vals over Pearl Harbor, JG 52 Bf 109s vs. Yak 9s, Spit vs Bf 109 over London, F4Fs against BB Hiei, Typhoons vs. R-boats, Sunderland vs. U-461, Bob Stanford-Tuck over Dunkirk and so on.

In short, if you love aviation art - but can't afford to buy it(!) - books like AIR COMBAT PAINTINGS, MASTERWORKS COLLECTION are your salvation. They offer a wonderful, fairly inexpensive sampling of a great artist's work. Highly recommended.
*****

*I wish Taylor had arranged the paintings chronologically so we could see the progression in his work.
*This is the British paperback edition; the book originally appearing in hardcover.