Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora

by Jim Flora, Irwin Chusid

by Irwin Chusid
Following hot on the heels of 2004's The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora , this book features a wide array of both Chusid's commercial work for prestigious record labels of the '40s and rare, personal work. His style is cartoonish, evoking childhood nostalgia and dereliction of adult responsibility. There is also a wealth of 1940s Columbia Records printed matter exhibiting Flora's visual pranks; 1950s RCA Victor-era work; magazine illustrations, sketchbooks, and prints; 1930s Little Man Press-era drawings; paintings from all decades; photos, and personal keepsakes.

Genres: Art, Biography

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2007

About the author

James (Jim) Flora is best-known for his wild jazz and classical album covers for Columbia Records (late 1940s) and RCA Victor (1950s). He authored and illustrated 17 popular children’s books and flourished for decades as a busy magazine illustrator. Few realize, however, that Flora was also a prolific fine artist with a devilish sense of humor and a flair for juxtaposing playfulness, absurdity and violence.

Jim Flora also wrote and illustrated seventeen popular books for children. Jim Flora’s fantastically illustrated books captivated kids throughout the 1960s and 70s, so much so that secondhand copies sell for exorbitant sums. Grandpa’s Ghost Stories has been the most sought-after of his children’s books.

Reviews

[Zack Makepiece · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jim Flora was a legendary designer of album covers, a magazine artist, and children's book illustrator. This is the second collection of his work. The first, The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora, focused on the work that made his reputation: his unforgettably modern, twisted, and abstract album cover designs that bring delight to the eyes of every record-digger who ever pulls them from a flea market box. This book focuses on work discovered after the first was compiled, and its most compelling section features page after page of non-commissioned personal work that throws many of the stylistic tics that run rampant on his Columbia and RCA album covers into relief. On the albums, the grotesqueries and abstract shapes seem like a happy pop Picasso delivering impish commentary on the jazz, classical, and comedic contents of the LPs Flora illustrated. The contents of the records rarely can match the promise of fun and mind-rearrangement promised by the covers. In this book, freed from their obligation to try to sell you anything, Flora's monsters, fractured people and urban cutaways get to cavort and boogie without obligation to 12" x 12" canvas or other graphic design obligations, and while I'm not sure which is weirder, this stuff in a 'fine art' context or this stuff on record albums, it's a pleasure to see more curiously sinister, and curiously evocative, art. Irving Chusid's commentary provides the interesting perspective of an obsessive pop archaeologist, as it did in the first book.

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Until very recently I only knew James Flora's work as a children's author. "Grandpa's Ghost Stories" was popular in our house. Now I know that I have seen Flora's work many times. The magazine illustrations and record company posters, part of his lifetime of work, were everywhere. During the time I was reading this book, I saw one of his posters as set dressing on the TV show "Elementary" when Joan Watson is in an antiquarian bookstore. In addition to his artwork I enjoyed his text advertising record releases. Here's a sample: "That "Drumming Man" will knock you into a lather of musical delight with his latest Columbia and Okeh Records. You'll want to tear up the rugs and cut them into small bits. Rush to your Columbia Dealer and let yourself bounce to these Gene Krupa specials."