Jim Flora new ltd ed print 1951 painting 63rd Street

$

213

63rd Street by Jim Flora

Jim Flora Art LLC is releasing limited-edition, archival-quality fine art prints of an uncirculated early 1950s Jim Flora painting entitled 63rd Street.

Produced by Flora archivist Barbara Economon, the prints have been meticulously crafted and painstakingly reproduced from the original painting using state-of-the-art digital technology. Economon and co-archivist Irwin Chusid have determined that the work dates from 1950-51 when Flora lived in Mexico.

Only ten (10) prints of 63rd Street have been produced for this edition, and this is the only print which will be listed on eBay during 2007. Each print is hand-titled and numbered in the lower corners beneath the image and authenticated on the reverse with the stamped seal of Jim Flora Art LLC (a Flora family enterprise). The edition number of this auction print is 10/10.

The image area is 8" high x 19" wide -- slightly larger than the original work -- and centered on a sheet 17" high x 22" wide.  The unframed prints are on heavyweight (310g) mould-made William Turner stock, a natural white, 100% rag paper with a fine toothy surface manufactured by Hahnemuehle, who are renowned for premium-grade archival papers.

The edition was produced on an Epson 3800Pro large format printer using Epson UltraChrome K3 Pigment Ink Technology, resulting in brilliant, velvety color and offering excellent longevity and durability. (Bidders take note: the low-res image on eBay does not do justice to the quality of the print, which is brighter, crisper, larger, and more vibrant.)

The original 63rd Street is stored in the Flora family’s private collection. A high-resolution scan was made of the original art, a tempera paint and watercolor on heavy paper, measuring 7-1/8" high x 16-3/16" wide. All aspects of the original artwork have been retained, including minor aging artifacts which in no way detract from the overall impression.

After this edition is sold out, the work will never again be offered as a fine art print this large or in this format. Dealer inquiries are welcome for remaining prints.

The print will ship flat, securely packaged and guaranteed against bending or dents. Print includes a detailed, custom-printed one-sheet with instructions for the proper care of this fine art reproduction.

See more Flora works online at JimFlora.com and JimFloraArt.com. Also visit our Jim Flora Art eBay store.

James Flora (1914-1998) created dozens of fun and deftly diabolic album covers for Columbia Records and RCA Victor during the 1940s and '50s. A collection of his covers, commercial assignments, and early letterpress work was published in The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora (Fantagraphics, 2004). A second book, The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora (Fantagraphics, February 2007), features a selection of Flora's rarely seen early paintings, woodcuts, prints, sketches, and commercial assignments.  63rd Street was reproduced in The Curiously Sinister Art. Due to the fine art print's higher-resolution process, as well as superior paper, inks, and quality control, the colors in the print appear more vibrant than those in the book. Online color appearance may vary slightly depending on your monitor settings.

====================

Fans of Flora:

Shag:
"If you look at my paintings, you'll see Flora's influence, as well as that of Deitch, Kimball, and other illustrators.  That period of jazz-influenced, minimal, Cubist, wacked-out, avant-garde illustration and animation remains my favorite, and is the base upon which I've tried to build my own body of work. Sometimes I paint an object and realize, 'Oh no -- that's how Jim Flora would have done it!' That usually requires me to paint over said object and try to do it again more 'Shag-like,' whatever that means. Flora did it like nobody else."

Tim Biskup:
'"This is going to change the way that I draw," I said out loud in a record store. I was holding an LP  called Shorty Courts The Count. The cover seemed to be moving. The balance of the shapes and colors was so perfect. After a few minutes, my eye made it to the bottom right corner. It said, simply, 'Flora.' With a bit of searching, I found it was Jim Flora. I've been a huge fan ever since, and my drawings were forever changed for the better."

Gary Baseman:
"Jim Flora's surreal images pop off the paper and into the viewer's subconscious. The album covers he illustrated are visual jazz -- very playful and improvisational. They're very cool."

Gene Deitch:
"In the 1940s, Flora's stuff just sent me into a graphic buzz, and I was brazenly imitating his style in my work."

Lane Smith:
"Jim Flora was a big influence for me -- I was always inspired by the spontaneity and animation in his work. He was one of a kind."

John Canemaker:
"Exciting eyeball jazz, that was Flora.  Simultaneously primitive and modern – a cartoonish blend of Rousseau and Picasso, Miro and Bill Traylor."

Pete Docter:
"Flora's work features great modernist design and eye-catchingly expressive cartoon characters -- and neither loses out to the other.  There are not many artists who can do that, and no one did it better than Flora."

Flora: "a post-nuclear Miro"
Gary Marmorstein, Author, The Label: The Story of Columbia Records