ames (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 magazine illustrator. Few realize, however, that Flora (1914-1998) was also a prolific fine artist with a devilish sense of humor and a flair for juxtaposing playfulness, absurdity and violence.Cute — and deadly.
Flora's album covers pulsed with angular hepcats bearing funnel-tapered noses and shark-fin chins who fingered cockeyed pianos and honked lollipop-hued horns. Yet this childlike exuberance was subverted by a tinge of the diabolic. Flora wreaked havoc with the laws of physics, conjuring flying musicians, levitating instruments, and wobbly dimensional perspectives.
Taking liberties with human anatomy, he drew bonded bodies and misshapen heads, while inking ghoulish skin tints and grafting mutant appendages. He was not averse to pigmenting jazz legends Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa like bedspread patterns. On some Flora figures, three legs and five arms were standard equipment, with spare eyeballs optional. His rarely seen fine artworks reflect the same comic yet disturbing qualities. "He was a monster," said artist and Floraphile JD King. So were many of his creations.JimFlora.com exhibits samples of Flora's fine art, commercial assignments, sketches, prints, books, and memorabilia. Our goal is to bring Flora's work to renewed prominence. We have published three anthologies of Flora art, and several more are planned. Working with the Flora family we are producing and marketing prints (in several formats) of the artist's idiosyncratic images. Flora spread paint on paper. We're spreading Flora over the planet.
Jim Flora once said that all he wanted to do was "create a little piece of excitement." He overshot his goal with much of his work.
THE SWEETLY DIABOLICART OF JIM FLORA
Paintings, drawings, sketches, and commercial illustrations from the 1940s thru the '90s, plus more Columbia Records artifacts. Also rare (and bizarre) early children's book drafts. By Irwin Chusid and Barbara Economon. Designed by Laura Lindgren. Published by Fantagraphics, July 2009.
THE CURIOUSLY SINISTER ART OF JIM FLORAThe first publication of dozens of rare fine art works by the artist, along with woodcuts, commercial illos, and early Columbia Records artifacts. By Irwin Chusid and Barbara Economon. Designed by Laura Lindgren. Published by Fantagraphics, February 2007.
THE MISCHIEVOUS ART OF JIM FLORARecord covers, Columbia Coda illos, Little Man Press artifacts, and more. By Irwin Chusid. Image Restorations by Barbara Economon. Designed by Laura Lindgren. Published by Fantagraphics, October 2004; 2nd ed. (rev.) February 2007.
Recent releases:
 The Big Bank Robbery Edition of 30 |
 Ferris Wheel Fireworks Edition of 30 |
 G3 in Tampico Edition of 25 |
 White Block Quadrupeds Edition of 25 |
Big EveningEdition of 25
LIMITED EDITION 2007 RELIEF PRINTS
OF MASTERWORK 1951 FLORA WOODCUT
JimFlora.com offers limited edition relief prints struck from an intricate and well-preserved original Flora woodcut depicting a decadent, manic panorama. Railroad Town comprises a catalogue raisonné of Flora fixations: music, dogs, trains, rogues, and toothpick towers. A macabre terpsichore frolics across the stage: junkyard hounds, a half-pint holdup man, modern-art genitalia, a speeding doorless car, quadruped humanoids—everything but empty space. There's even a railroad! The image measures 11" x 22", and the full Railroad Town edition print (with border) measures 18-3/4" x 30".
FLORA NYC EXHIBIT at Dorian Grey GalleryShowcase runs NOV 19, 2011 - JAN 8, 2012
posted: November 10, 2011
Dorian Grey Gallery hosts The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora, the first posthumous New York exhibit and sale of Jim Flora original art and prints, Nov. 19 (reception) thru Jan. 8. The gallery is showcasing significant works from the Flora family collection, covering the 1940s to the late 1990s. Offerings include temperas on paper; woodcut prints (vintage and new); medium and large acrylics on canvas; pen & ink drawings on paper; fine art and screen prints, and branded Flora paper merchandise. Many exhibited works (see samples on the Gallery's website) have not been previously published. The above exhibit promo art (by Laura Lindgren, our Flora book designer) will be issued as a limited edition fine art print through Dorian Grey.
Kangaroo for Christmasposted: October 15, 2011
Kangaroo for Christmas, Flora's fifth kiddie book (1962), has been reprinted in hardcover by Enchanted Lion Books. (Buy here at Amazon.com.) Last year Enchanted Lion reprinted Flora's The Day The Cow Sneezed (1957). Enchanted Lion will expand their reprint series of Flora's long-out-of-print children's literature in 2012 with Leopold, The See-Through Crumbpicker (1961).
Flora prints from ArtMuse.com
posted: October 1, 2011
ArtMuse.com ("Original Affordable Art") has produced four archival-quality, limited edition fine art prints of iconic Jim Flora works from the 1950s and 1960s. The works (three of which were previously unpublished) are available in a variety of sizes.
Bell Island at Nightposted: May 1, 2011
Launched: Bell Island at Night, a limited-edition (30) fine art print of a 1968 Flora tempera. Bell Island is a quaint Connecticut boating enclave on Long Island Sound where Flora lived from the mid-1940s until his death in 1998. His brushstrokes evoke a playful nocturnal portrait of neighborhood and neighbors.
Maritime Vignettesposted: April 1, 2011
Maritime Vignettes, a trio of letterpress-printed cards, depict Flora-esque New England nautical figures. The images were adapted from an uncirculated 1954 Jim Flora woodcut entitled Connecticut Shore. Artworks suitable for mailing as notecards or framing in your Captain's Quarters.
PRIMER FOR PROPHETS SCREEN PRINTS
FLORA ALPHABET: SERIES #3 RELEASED
NOW AVAILABLE: the third quartet of screen prints in the Primer for Prophets series. Cool Flora illustrations of the American nuclear family during the 1950s, when grocers employed stockdogs, crows fought tug-of-war over lingerie, and cigarettes were allowed in the obstetrics ward.
The images derive from a 1954 trade-only alphabet booklet that Flora illustrated for CBS-TV. The third set of prints features ECONOMIZED, NURSED, WASHED, and UNDERESTIMATED. Edition of 100 (each image), hand-numbered and authenticated. Also available as a FULL SET.
Primer for Prophets series #1 (ATE, DROVE, JIVED, and SMOKED) and series #2 (KISSED, COOKED, GROOMED, and QUAFFED) are still available as single prints or as SETS.
