Out of This World: the Art of Josh Kirby

[Lenny]

Taken from The Information - The Independent's "essential guide to going out & staying in", in Saturday 9th's newspaper:

Josh Kirby coted Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder as formative influences on his work: it makes complete sense when you consider his fascination for teeming worlds populated by strange-looking creatures. A Liverpuddlian by birth, Kirby started out as a portrait painter, but after graduating fro the Liverpool College of Art, he moved south and turned his back on fine art. The Walker Art Gallery's retrospective suggests he made the right decision, producing numerous book covers for writers such as Ray Bradbury, Edgar Rice Burroughs and, most memorably, Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series.

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Friday 15th June to 30th September

From the Walker Art Gallery site:

Out of this World: The art of Josh Kirby

Saturday, June 16, 2007 - Sunday, September 30, 2007

The first retrospective exhibition of science fiction artist Josh Kirby. Born in Liverpool in 1928 and trained at Liverpool School of Art he began his career producing film posters, moving to book and cover art for magazines. Some of his more famous work includes the first cover of Ian Fleming’s Moonraker and the poster for Monty Python’s Life of Brian. He is best known for his cover illustrations of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.
The exhibition will comprise around 150 works spanning the whole of his career such as artwork for book covers, for magazines, personal studies, large-scale oils, film posters, preparatory sketches. Selections from the Discworld series will be included, but the exhibition will also reach far beyond that to show visitors the full range of his output. It will be packed with visions of weird worlds, fantastic and magical creatures, monsters, maidens and much more. The incredible detail, imaginiation and skill behind Josh's art will be fully revealed.

 

[Harpo]

My favourite of his Discworld back cover images