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Title: The Art of Jeffrey Jones by Arnie Fenner, Cathy Fenner ISBN: 1-887424-57-1 Publisher: Underwood Books Pub. Date: October, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Good but not enough
Comment: Dozens and dozens Jeffrey Jones' wonderful paintings are beautifully produced in this fine book. Unfortunately, there is very little in the area of his sketches, and almost nothing of his comic work.
It might be argued that Jones' most original creations were his *Idyll* and *I'm Age* strips for National Lampoon and Heavy Metal. Certainly his work with pen-and-ink is nothing short of extraordinary. (I work with pen-and-ink myself and am in awe of his modeling techniques.) This book gives us only one single page of Idyll and one single page of I'm Age.
Because of these disappointing omissions I am tempted to give this book only two or three stars, but I give four stars in the hope that the Idyll and I'm Age strips will be collected together at a later time. They are brilliant, and from an artistic standpoint they are at least as important as the paintings.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Best Jones
Comment: Questions have always circulated about Jeffrey Jones and his place in the history of 20th Century fantasy art: was he a monumental talent or just another Frazetta imitator? I think this book finally provides a definitive answer: he was both. THE ART OF JEFFREY JONES is a beautiful showcase that effectively traces Jones' transition from a Frazetta-wannabe in the 1960s to the truly gifted painter of the 1990s be became.
And I must disagree with Manfred's complaints and comparisons to previous Jones books: not only are Jones' earlier books long out of print, but THE ART OF JEFFREY JONES includes a great deal of work not included in any other collection (along with unpublished art credited as being painted in the '90s). While the text most certainly could have been expanded, I believe the editors have revealed more about Jones as an artist and person than any have previously and I came away with a better appreciation of this eccentric creator. A personal favorite.
Rating: 3
Summary: an unnecessary book ...
Comment: I was quite disappointed by this book. I am a great fan of Jeffrey Jones' art, so it is not the content that I find fault with.
Even from the outside you can see that this book is too thin. There are many pictures, well printed, and most of them in pleasurably large format. But a large part of them were collected in the previous two volumes, "Yesterday's Lily" and "Age of Innocence", and there is not much that I haven't seen elsewhere.
For one of the genres' greatest legends this book is definitely too meagre. This man has been painting for over thirty years and has published very little in the last two decades, but we do not get to see what he has done. The selection of works seems uninformed and accidental, the arrangement random. The focus is on the most early and the most recent, but does not even begin to satisfyingly represent these periods. Not even one of his privately commissioned works is reproduced. We get to see only a handful of paintings from the 80s, and almost no comics or drawings.
The text to the book, with the exception of Jones' own six-page autobiographical essay, is superficial and uninformative, the few quotes of Jones' own words eclectic.
And what may be adequate design for "the year's best in contemporary fantastic art" is out of place for the presentation of an artist who has in his paintings allowed us to perceive the invisible.
"Age of Innocence", though very much thinner in volume, was much more intense in its focus and much more striking in its impression on me. If you want a good book, buy that one; but if you are a fan of Jeffrey Jones, well, I guess you will need this one as well.
A final word: I do not want to devalue the work of Arnie and Cathy Fenner, the editors of this volume. I do not understand the limitations that are forced on a publication like this one, but in their foreword the Fenners hint at the narrow leeway they were given. I am glad that the Fenners have undertaken the presentation of even this small and unsatisfying selection of the oeuvre of on of the masters of contemporary fantastic art, and they should receive an award for their efforts here and with "Spectrum" (even imperfect as that one is also).
Myself, I would have preferred a more exhaustive publication, and I would gladly have paid ten times the price for it. Now I will have to continue my life hungry: having tasted but without getting to know the art of Jeffrey Jones.
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Title: Spectrum 10: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art (Spectrum, No 10) by Arnie Fenner, Cathy Fenner ISBN: 1887424725 Publisher: Underwood Books Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: Progressions: The Art of Jon Foster by Jon Foster, Steve Jackson Games ISBN: 1556346263 Publisher: Steve Jackson Games Pub. Date: July, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Spectrum 1: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art by Cathy Fenner, Arnie Fenner, Lee Stuart, Cathy Burnett ISBN: 1887424458 Publisher: Underwood Books Pub. Date: December, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: Testament: The Life and Art of Frank Frazetta by Arnie Fenner, Cathy Fenner, Frank Frazetta ISBN: 1887424628 Publisher: Underwood Books Pub. Date: 09 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Spectrum 9: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art by Cathy Fenner, Arnie Fenner ISBN: 1887424660 Publisher: Underwood Books Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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