Filed Under: "1950s"

NOW AVAILABLE: the next four works in the Primer for Prophets screen print series. Cool Flora illustrations of the American nuclear family (and their weird pets) during the 1950s, when donuts and cake were considered essential nutrients, little girls could multi-task with brushes, and dogs craved beer! The images derive from a 1954 trade-only alphabet booklet that Flora illustrated for CBS-TV. The second set of prints features KISSED, COOKED, GROOMED, and QUAFFED. Edition of 100…

When composer-arranger Bill Finegan passed away last week at the age of 91, a New York Times writer (on the recommendation of a mutual friend and Flora admirer) contacted me for some background on the music legend. I confessed that, in all honesty, I knew less about what Finegan did for Glenn Miller, Nelson Riddle, and Tommy Dorsey than I do about what Jim Flora did for Bill Finegan. Flora gave Finegan two right arms,…

The Newspaper Archive offers a massive online database of regional papers. It claims to have archived 895 million articles published in 747 cities over 240 years. In case you’ve run out of things to read on the web, here’s a bottomless library. I bought a ten-day pass to search for Jim Flora illustrations. Easy, right? Well, yes and no. NA’s search engine uses OCR to find word strings in old newsprint that’s been erratically scanned….

Section art, 29th Annual of Advertising and Editorial ArtThe Art Directors Club of New York, 1950

Jugglers, a 1957 Flora woodcut, was recently editioned at Yee-Haw Industrial Letterpress, in Knoxville. The 50 prints, struck from the original artist’s block, will be offered for sale by Jim Flora Art LLC in about a month. YH printed Railroad Town in 2006/2007, and plans to produce several more Flora relief prints over the next two years. A vintage artist’s print of this work was reproduced in The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora.

It’s been a long time comin’ here in Minnesota — at last I can milk the cow, play some records and mow the lawn! Ah, yes — but it still drizzles. Hence the umbrella. And cigar. Saturday Evening Post advertising promotional booklet, 1955.

Sundazed Records, one of the world’s foremost boutique rock reissue labels, offers a new limited edition T-shirt emblazoned with a Jim Flora space-age pan-galactic starship. The original 1958 illustration (from the back of a Billy Mure LP) was black & white. Sundazed offers two colorized editions, the mustardy-cheesey: And the aqua & salmon tinted:

UPDATE 4/25: Two prints sold. Now available via JimFlora.com. The Incredible Flutist is an uncirculated 1953-54 record cover illustration by Flora that was intended for a 7-inch RCA Victor EP. Jim Flora Art LLC is offering two fine art prints on eBay at a launch price. According to a purchase order discovered in the Flora archives, the illustration was commissioned by RCA in late 1953, but there’s no indication the work was finished, accepted, or…

Look magazine, December 27, 1955

Edition of ten, one of which is now being offered on eBay. After this print sells at the fixed price, the price will increase for the remainder of the edition, which will be offered thru JimFlora.com.

Detail, draft manuscript, The Fabulous Firework Family (1955)