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 (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 disturbingqualities. “He was a monster,” said artist and Floraphile JD King. So were many of his creations.
RIALTO
RIALTO, a wild Jim Flora tempera, was released in March 2021 as a limited edition fine art print. This early 1950s painting depicts the usual Flora vortex of otherworldly mutants, sex, peek-a-boo tenements, off-kilter landscapes, disjointed faces, and visual overload. The work is available as a limited edition of 35 prints.
PADDLEWHEELER
Our third Jim Flora limited edition fine art print of 2022 will be PADDLEWHEELER. The undated, untitled work, likely rendered by Flora in the 1950s, depicts a colorful paddlewheel boat against a black backdrop. Paddlewheeler has not previously been reproduced anywhere. The work will soon be available as a limited edition of 25 fine art prints.
URUAPAN
Our second Jim Flora limited edition fine art print of 2022 was URUAPAN. The undated work, likely rendered by Flora in the late 1960s, depicts Uruapan, the second largest city in the Mexican state of Michoacán. The volcano, Parícutin, near the city, first erupted in 1943, but has been dormant since 1952. Uruapan has not previously been reproduced anywhere. The work is available as a limited edition of 20 fine art prints.
CHIOGGIA
Our first Jim Flora limited edition fine art print of 2022 was CHIOGGIA, a colorful Venice montage inspired by the artist's 1962 sojourn to Italy. Trees, boats, birds, fish, evocative architecture, gondaliers, and more, arrayed in tiers in classic Flora style. The work is available as a limited edition of 20 fine art prints.
