Review: Avatar (2009) ...note
Al
beautiful science fiction images would show up on the cover of the
science fiction magazine ANALOG. An artist named Jack Schoenherr
painted many of these covers."
... Mark R. Leeper (Review: Avatar)
I think you mean John Schoenherr , who indeed was Analog's great
artist of the 1960's, not only his paintings for the covers but also
his interior illos.
However it was John W Campbell who had the biggest impact on the cover
and interior illustration art for science fiction magazines.
In a way that is an odd thing to say.... because John Campbell is
better remembered for hauling modern science fiction prose into a
realm of sophistication that it had slipped from (that is... its roots
in H.G. Wells).(Not that intelligent SF had disappeared, it was just
sparse in 1938. When Campbell took over editing Astounding (later
Analog) (ASF) he demanded first good stories and good science or good
extrapolated science , whence he found Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke ,
and a host of others.
Campbell had an eye for illustration art, his writers were infusing
their prose with verisimilitude and a 'lived-in' feel, especially in
'future fiction' SF that he wanted to capture in art (he banished BEMs
and brass bras!). That is why one sees all the wonderful covers by
first Rogers in the late 30's through the 40's, then he really hit
artistic pay dirt with Kelly Freas and Ed Emshwiller (alas EMSH is not
as well known as Freas tho he was that artist's peer, EMSH appeared
more often on Galaxy and F&SF), later John Schoenheer in the 1960s.
Campbell was not the only SF magazine editor with an eye for making a
junction between stylish enlightened prose appearing in modern SF and
art but he was one of the best.
It was not until Kubrick's eye fell on SF as a cinema form did we get
a movie to match visual and intellectual level of modern SF prose.
Mark Leeper
"Jack."
On Dec 29, 10:57 am, Al <aajackso...@gmail.com> wrote:
> "When I was growing up in the 1960s, what I considered the most
> beautiful science fiction images would show up on the cover of the
> science fiction magazine ANALOG. An artist named Jack Schoenherr
> painted many of these covers."
> ... MarkR.Leeper(Review: Avatar)
Al
> As I remember when I saw him at conventions he preferred to be called
> "Jack."
>
> On Dec 29, 10:57 am, Al <aajackso...@gmail.com> wrote:
Yes a number of Johns prefer Jack. (There is a famous case.)
Another note, according to a long long ago Cinefantastique Schoenherr
made some contributions to David Lynch's DUNE.....
tho he was never credited. The film indeed does have some echos of
Schoenherr's art.
An odd film, Lynch really seemed to be trying, but it is known now
that he was dispirited when he found out he would not have the
final cut.
(Since the TV version was so lackluster... it is tempting to wonder
what DUNE would be like if given the AVATAR treatment? One hesitates
tho,
Hollywood has always been disinterested in sophisticated prose science
fiction ... so maybe just as well.)
Mark Leeper
I had not realized that Lynch never credited Schoenherr. The film's
visualizations have considerably more than echoes. The Analog
illustrations were closely associated with the with the novel and
Lynch's film very accurately recreated the illustrations. The film
was Schoenherr's art come to life, in my opinion.
--Mark
Al
I need to look at the credit crawl at the end of the film, but IMDB
does not list Schoenherr ... could be one of 'uncredited' things that
never got listed as uncredited!
There is another oblique case of this with Blade Runner, even tho
Ridley Scott correctly attributes the film's future fiction design to
Jean Giraud (Moebius ) , there is an explicit artistic verisimilitude
from the work of SF artist Ed Emshwiller , especially the work he did
for Galaxy magazine in 1950's. The future on a chipped plate, as Brian
W. Aldiss put it in Trillion Year Spree. In fact the film seemed more
like Dick's fiction in the 1950's than it did Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep? .
By the by liked your review of Avatar ....'high standard
deviation' , yes I like that, a better observation than the NY Times
or Roger Ebert.