Filed Under: "1960s"

Detail, The Big Bank Robbery, undated acrylic on board, ca. early 1960s complete work reproduced in The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora P.S. Another detail:

Update: Two prints sold. Edition now available at JimFlora.com. Now listed on eBay: a limited-edition, archival-quality fine art print of an uncirculated 1963 Flora tempera painting, Back to Bellefontaine. Flora was born in Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio, in 1914, and lived there until 1934, when he enrolled at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Only 25 prints were produced for this edition. Prints #25/25 and 24/25 are being offered at the launch price of $200/ea. Prices…

“Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime.” untitled tempera with pencil, ca. early 1960s found in sketchbook

Detail, tempera on paper, 1962

untitled tempera on paper, ca. 1960s

One of many—a recurring Flora motif. There’s something jazz-like about these images, as if the artist were jamming on a canvas, creating rhythmic design. This untitled 10 x 8 tempera, discovered in a sketchbook, dates from the early to mid-1960s. There are dozens of sketchbooks in the collection, spanning the early 1940s to the month of Flora’s death in July 1998. Aside from pen and pencil project drafts, the books contain numerous fully rendered (and…

untitled modular tempera, ca. 1960s

Detail from untitled painting, ca. 1960sAnother detail appears here

Detail, Baltimore, tempera on paper, ca. mid-1960s

Flora was a failed architecture student. He had to forego a scholarship to the Boston Architectural League in 1933 due to Depression-era financial constraints—he was too tired to attend classes after shifts as a busboy. (“I earned seven dollars a week plus meals and had to work the entire day—breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This meant that I could not attend classes. Late in October the school said they could no longer hold my scholarship open.”)…

To sustain the classic Flora LP tradition of the 1940s and ’50s, I’ve long advocated restoring his art to record album covers. Aside from one or two knockoffs of existing Flora designs, the first new release to adapt Flora non-LP art was Do This! by Seattle’s Reptet, in 2006. The cover for the forthcoming Raymond Scott Quintet CD Ectoplasm (scheduled for February 2008 US release) was completed last May. Now comes the Quartet San Francisco’s…

Bottom half of two-tiered tempera found in sketchbook (ca. 1963-65). One of countless Flora works without a title.