Customer Reviews

The Art of Richard Powers (Paper Tiger)

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Finally, a book dedicated solely to the works of the late Richard Powers... a dream come true. I was tired of always seeing him presented as one of many entries in books of sci-fi artists, shoved between others who were obviously not as talented as he. This is a true deal.... page after page of his beautiful/haunting/otherworldly art (yes, all 3 adjectives, and more, exist in each painting!). The reproductions are of a very high quality and clarity, some taking up 2 pages, allowing you to see the textures within the images. The text gives some very good insight on Powers' inspirations and personality, with some very funny stories. My only objections are - 1. There are a number of works produced in a fairly small format (4" x 4" or less) , and I would've gladly paid more if the publisher had enlarged them and expanded the page count. 2. No photos of Powers at work, just two self-portraits. 3. The text tends to ramble a bit, especially the first chapter, and I would have loved to see more art in place of it.

The best cover artist of all time. No exaggeration. Some of the later work becomes, unfortunately, exceedingly literal--it's as if someone forced Powers to put Boris-Vallejo-like human figures into his abstract scenes in order to satisfy some PR/marketing goal. They don't make 'em like this anymore.

This highly recommended introduction covering the life of the artist Richard Power opens to a full-page color-embellished survey of 120 of the artist's fantasy images and contributions to the world of paperback illustrative art. An outstanding survey of images is created in an excellent keepsake edition for fans of science fiction and fantasy art.

The Art of Richard Powers - Jane Frank

In 1958 I read a book titled "Men, Martians and Machines" by Eric Frank Russell. I hardly recall the stories but the cover made a lasting impression on me. The depiction of bizarre alien machines, a fantastical space ship and a flaming sun influenced me to seek out and read more of these type stories. The cover artist was Richard Powers (1921-96) and his distinct style has graced numerous book covers over the period 1945 to 1997.

I recently purchased The Art of Richard Powers first published in 2001. As a life long reader of science fiction and a Powers admirer I was delighted with this book. This book's large size: 9 by 11.5 - provides ample space to display many stunning examples of his otherworldly artwork in a generous format.

At 128 pages the editor was able to include a wide selection of his painting. It was most interesting to see familiar book covers without the title over printing. Included is a checklist of all Powers book illustrations - my guess at least a thousand entries - from 1945 to 1997. The artwork is supplemented with several articles about and by Powers.

Jane Frank's book is filled with wonderful full-color examples of Richard Powers' work. The text reads easily and the captions for each painting are informative. Fans of Powers' sci-fi cover work will be pleased to know that he did illustrations for most all genres, including a terrific series of poetry collections the covers of which this reader has been intrigued by since high school. Ms. Frank has done a fine job in putting excellent examples Powers' genius on display. Take a trip through time, space, dreams, the subconscious, the art world--all at once--by reading this book.

"When we think of 1950s science fiction, we may see Kelly Freas; but when we dream, we dream Richard Powers."
--John Clute

When I was a lad, I used to haunt the University Supply Store at the University of the South ( in Sewanee, Tennessee) at odd hours of the day. They had a metal revolving rack of paperback books. Among these books were Ballantine science fiction and horror books. They were illustrated one and all by an artist named Richard Powers, who used abstract and semi abstract designs the like of which I had never seen before.

There was the crouching nude man and the modern balconied buildings and the teardrop space liner with the pregnant belly and the eye in the sky that illustrated Arthur C. Clarke's _Childhood's End_ (1953). There was the grasping hand with the strange human figures in its palm and the manic yellow-and-orange abstract background of Theodore Sturgeon's _More Than Human_ (1955). There were the clenching apelike hands and fuzzy gorilla figures and strange machines for Poul Anderson's _Brain Wave_ (1954). There was the jagged snowman figure, the shooting pink flakes, silver meteor, and polar tripod for James Blish's _The Frozen Year_ (1957). The blue skull with a section of the head whizzing off like a comet for Don Congdon's _Alone by Night_ (1961). The witches and demons and shrunken head motif for Charles Beaumont's _The fiend in You_ (1962). The jagged toothed figure standing beside the grandfather clock for H.R. Wakefield's _The Clock Strikes Twelve_ (1961).

Not all of these paintings are in _The Art of Richard Powers_ (2001), ed. Jane Frank, but many of them are. And there are many more that I have not mentioned. Science fiction has been blessed with a number of highly talented professional artists-- Hans Bok, Ed Emshwiller, Kelly Freas, Lee Brown Coye, Virgil Finlay, and Jack Gaughan come to mind. But how many real giants? I would argue three: John Schoenherr, Chesley Bonestell, and Powers.

Classifying the artwork of Powers may be moderately tricky at times. Sometimes a single painting was used on more than one novel. At other times, Powers did more than one painting for a single novel. Sometimes images were recycled. The grasping hand of _More Than Human_ may also be found in an illustration to a juvenile edition of _The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_. The eye in the sky, the severed skull/head, the Alexander Calderlike robots reappear. But no single Powers painting was ever just like another. He was an original.

I was particularly interested in a series of paintings that Powers composed around the imaginary city-world of fFlar. Some of these were originally painted for an illustration to another novel or book. Some were previously unpublished. They represent some of Powers' most off-trail and imaginative acrylics. They include pictures of Ur-cities, games, space prisons, heroes, and creatures.

There are interviews with the artist, biographical tidbits ( I didn't know before that Powers had a passionate hatred of Richard Nixon), and an excellent index of his commercial art from 1945 to 1997. This book is a visual treasure. Get it. Save money for a while if you have to. But get it.

Andy Partridge, formerly of the band XTC, recently released a very limited run of CD's with instrumental pieces inspired by Powers art, but because of the prohibitive cost of licensing a piece of his actual work for what would only be a 500 CD print run, he decided he'd use an homage picture instead... but what if the Powers estate did it the other way around and licensed Partridge's surreal pieces as an extra for a book of their own? That'd be quite a package and a good way to cross market.
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