You will all have seen the work of Chris Foss, his amazing paintings have decorated science fiction books since the late sixties. Asimov, Doc Smith, Vogt, Harryhausen have all had Foss paintings screaming out from the bookshelves and for many years, dictated which books I bought. Often, I would by a novel purely for the cover, often finding the story either dull or utterly different to what I anticipated. Foss's paintings sold me a real space opera, the likes of which would not appear till after the advent of Star Wars.
In 1978, Paper Tiger brought out a slim volume collecting Chris Foss work and I bought a copy with my college grant - £4.75! I adored the work and desperately wanted to paint like this, even investing in an airbrush. But to no avail, I could not begin to approach the imagination of technique of the master.
This xmas I got a new definitive collection of his work, a much bigger, heavier volume collecting all his published work and some sketchbook material. I think he has passed his peak today, as the later paintings are not nearly as dramatic and unusual as his seventies work, but he has influenced many generations and been imitated many times.
Woodsys Tootsie Rocket post has header cards showing art which is clearly derived from Foss, namely a sketch of the Leviathan from an early Alien script and part of a triptych of James Blush covers, called Torrent of Faces.
The colouring owes something to the Ian Gillan Band cover - Clean Air Turbulence.
Cool!
ReplyDeleteI collected a bunch of his hardcover books back in the 1970s about the Terran Trade Authority. Great stuff!
Spacewreck, Spaceliners, and some I have at home that I can't remember the titles.
These books were written by Stewart Cowley and never actually feautured Foss's work - they used a range of art from other contemporary artists, like Angus McKie, Tony Burns, Peter Elson etc. A lot of them emulated Foss style but were much more recent.
DeleteI love the SF art of that period. My favourite still being the Hooded Swan covers by Angus Mckie. I've done a small amount of airbrush artwork, it's really hard.
ReplyDeleteVery much liked his stuff back then. His spaceships' bold designs and vivid colour schemes were bright and dramatic, unlike the mostly white/grey/dark grey (often therefore dull) fashion of the day (Star Wars, Alien, Outland, Galactica, Buck Rogers, Blake's 7 e.t.c.)
ReplyDeleteThese days, though I still think his stuff is good, I find it a bit too 'airbrushed' somehow. More inclined now to a Vincent de Fete, Rob McCall or an Ed Veligursky. They look more 'painterly' and less synthetic somehow.
I got to meet Chris Foss in person at the British World Science Fiction Convention in 2014. Going digital in later years didn't really add to his oeuvre. Still, an amazing artist and I can only wonder what Alien would have been like if they'd realised his concepts. Even painting the Nostromo yellow was ultimately blanded out to a dull grey.
ReplyDeleteOn second thoughts, I suspect it would have made Alien look more like the later Fifth Element or Valerian, which would have hurt the sombre tone of the film.
Foss seems to me to fill the same space in the 80's that Roger Dean had in the 70's, doing book and album covers in an individual style that that got noticed the most for years. Dean was 'my' artists and I have a lot of albums featuring his art and at least two books covering his work. Sadly Chris Foss never made it in my teenage collection. I do like his work though, immediately identifiable as his.
ReplyDeleteSPACE WARS: WORLDS & WEAPONS is the best-see the line drawing on page 21 for the Star Dart...my favorite.
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of other books out there if you have the time/money to invest (sorry I'm never selling my copies!!): there's Diary of a Space Person which is a large format hardback loosely tying together many of Foss's pieces into a narrative as well as loads of scantily clad - or not clad at all in some cases - women. It's all fully justified by the story btw but these new illustrations are for the most part done in pencil and as far as I know have never been reprinted elsewhere. Makes the book a little like the Joy of Sex book meets 21st Century Foss. There was also a collection of posters at A2 size if I recall rightly in a specially designed folder and if you're really a glutton you could go for old copies of Science Fiction Monthly from the 70's which had many high quality prints of his best work. I'm sure there was talk of Diary of a Spaceperson part 2 at one stage but as far as I know it never came about - although I would love to be wrong about that. My only quibble with the latest book is that some of the paintings are reproduced quite small and I think there were a few early Foss works missed out such as his JG Ballard covers for Crash and High Rise and his Edmund Cooper and John Wyndham covers as well as some of his non sci fi material such as the Geoffrey Jenkins covers and Duncan Kyle books and Gavin Lyall as well although I think some of these earlier covers are going to task even the most dedicated collector. I've been collecting his art for 40 plus years and I'm sure there are still pieces out there I will never get - I think even Chris himself can't recall much of his early output. That said, there's still plenty of time to publish another book hint hint Chris...
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to collect all of Chris Foss' paperback covers and have I think all the SF ones, plus many military, steam etc. There are two good portfolios of posters of his work, plus a special edition of Hardware with a signed print. I got mine signed by Chris at Forbidden Planet. Two of his paintings are being listed repeatedly on eBay, one for We Can Build You, which perhaps unfortunately features an image of Hitler, the other a German battleship. They aren't selling, to my surprise.
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