Customer Reviews

The Art of John Berkey (Paper Tiger)

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For those of you who were inspired by John Berkey's fantastic visions of the future decades ago, you will find continued inspiration in Jane Frank's new book, The Art of John Berkey. This book complements the earlier Painted Space book well, but stands on its own as a serious work about John Berkey. Several pages of autobiographical notes from Mr. Berkey himself followed by several chapters chronicling the many phases of Berkey's remarkable career. Back before computers, Berkey mastered the brush, inferring technological complexity with only minimal strokes in a way few other artists can. He ranks high along with legendary futurist artists like Syd Mead and Ralph McQuarrie. The book is beautifully printed, with lush colorful pages that bring Berkey's paintings to life. I recommend you purchase this book-it will take you on a fantastical journey you will want to come back to time and again.

I used to think of John Berkey as just a sci-fi artist. But after viewing this book its clear Berkey is quite simply an excellent artist on all levels. What I find masterful about his work is that upon close viewing you see that he uses simple brush strokes for his approach. Yet, when viewed from a distance his art appears as detailed as any photograph I've seen. This is what it means to be a true artist: Being able to convey a clearly conceived and well-executed idea while maintaining an original sense of style and technique. Mr Berkey's work should be viewed by all, whether sci-fi fan or not.

I have both of John Berkey's books in my library (though my daughter seems to have acquired them). He was an outstanding artist who worked entirely with traditional materials. Syd Mead, no less, once stated that John Berkey and Michelangelo were his favorite artists (that's quite a complement). If you the reader should come upon this book and have any interest in art, space illustration or just creativity for it's own sake, I highly recommend this to you. Unfortunately, he's no longer with us, but his excellence lives on in his work, as shown within.