THE ART OF RICHARD POWERS

"Starting with his first appearance on ballantine's paperbacks in the 1950s, Richard Powers's career spanned over four decades in which he produced jacket illustrations for over 1,200 sf novels. Now widely regarded as the single most influential artist in the history of paperback illustrative art, he is also considered a figure of towering stature in american twentieth-century fine art. 

Richard Powers died in 1995. 

Illustrated throughout with over 120 of the artist's powerfully evocative and dreamlike paintings, this dramatic and colourful book reveals the full diversity of powers's distinctive art. 

Includes an inside look at his life by his son Richard Gid Powers, interviews with the innovative artist himself and a forward by Vincent Di Fate."

~

"More than any individual author, Richard Powers showed the public that science fiction could be written by intelligent adults for intelligent adults. His superior aesthetics, which still overshadow most rivals, were actually what started me reading modern sf - with Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination, the cover for which perfectly captured the mood of that great American novel. I bought the book in Paris in 1957 because the cover looked cool. It didn't insult either my eye or my intelligence. So if it hadn't have been for powers, my romance with science fiction would have ended in my teens. I have huge admiration for him and am delighted that his talent is again on splendid display!"

-Michael Moorcock.

Back cover from the anthology Star Science Fiction Stories #1, 1953. 

Cover for the novel The Star Of Life by Edmund Hamilton, 1960.

Cover for Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s The Sirens Of Titan, 1990.

Interior illustration for Stardance II by Spider and Jeanne Robinson,
as featured in Analog, September 1978.

Interior illustration for Stardance II by Spider and Jeanne Robinson,
as featured in Analog, September 1978.

I've owned this book for years now but somehow neglected it throughout the existence of this blog until now. Of all the books with SF art as subject matter, The Art Of Richard Powers is one of the best and easiest to obtain with copies going for £3 - £10 used and new on both eBay and Amazon. Published in 2001 by Paper Tiger the book is crammed with full-colour illustrations, interviews and biographical essays - one of my favourite aspects of the book is a complete check-list of novels with publisher and publication data for every book that Powers worked on.

LIGHTSHIP

Paper Tiger paperback, 1985. © Jim Burns.

Painting for the cover of Larry Niven and Steven Barnes' Dream Park.

Big Boy Loco, from Planet Story; Burns' collaboration with Harry Harrison.

Spaceport, from Harry Harrison's book Mechanismo.

Painting from Richard Avery's The Deathworms Of Kratos.

Painting for Frank Herbert's Heretics Of Dune.

THE FLIGHTS OF ICARUS

Paper Tiger hardcover, 1977. Cover painting by Roger Dean.

The Einstein Intersection by Peter Elson.

The Ship That Sang by Angus McKie.

Before The Golden Age by Tony Roberts.

Untitled, painting by Angus McKie.

The Alien Way by Bruce Pennington.

The Princess Of Mars by Bruce Pennington.

THE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY WORLD OF TIM WHITE

Paper Tiger hardback, 1989 reprint. © Tim White.

 "This is the first published collection in book form of the work of Tim White. His paintings depict the landscape of the imagination, and imagination is our vehicle of exploration into the realms of Fantasy and Science Fiction. 

Fantasy art has always provided a popular means of expression and for the contemporary artist the rapid growth of the Science Fiction and Fantasy scene is an ever-widening frame of reference and an unending fund of inspiration. 

Many of the illustrations contained in this collection were pieces of commissioned artwork for publishers' book covers. Compromises obviously have to be made to accommodate, for example, a publisher's art director, but this can be advantageous rather than merely restrictive. 

Tim White combines superlative detail with a largely figurative approach to his interpretation, and creates a totally realistic image of his landscape of the imagination. 

He has produced over one hundred illustrations for book covers, and his other work includes record sleeves, magazine illustrations and private commissions. His work has also appeared in several exhibitions of Science Fiction and Fantasy art."

Illustration used for the short story Green In The Evening in the magazine
Science Fiction Monthly and subsequently featured on the cover of
Terry Greenhough's Wandering Worlds.

Cover painting for John Blackburn's The Scent Of New-Mown Hay.

 "...The most dreadful thing about it is this. In no instance does the victim die ... This thing does not kill. It doesn't need to. It is against its interest to kill. It blends its cells with those of the victim, incorporates itself with it. In the final form you have a creature that retains a basic human structure and yet its material is purely fungoid. You have a thing that can see and move and very possibly retain some thought processes. Thoughts that if they do exist will have one aim and one alone. That of spreading itself to others..."

Painting for Robert A Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

Cover for Rogue Golem, by Ernest M. Kenyon.

Cover painting for Fritz Leiber's Gather Darkness.

Cover painting for Daniel F. Galouye's short story collection
Project Barrier.

"In the tracks of its superior, a small robot analyser collects samples of the sparse flora in the thin atmosphere of a desolate asteroid. Even the most diminutive member of the team has fallen victim to an unprecedented outbreak of megalomania and broods secretly on a machiavellian plot to improve its position in a larger robot hierarchy."