Filed Under: "1990s"

Pen & ink on sketch pad paper, early- to mid-1990s

Pen & ink drawing, mid-1990s. This work was later adapted for a large colorful acrylic canvas. Both undated works reflect Flora’s mid-1990s techniques and media. The painting was recently photographed and is being considered for reproduction in our next anthology.

Pen & ink on sketch tablet paper, 1995. If you’re wondering where Conakry is located, it’s on the coast of Wikistan.

Pencil sketches for Till Eulenspiegel LP cover, 1955. The above skeletal figures eventually morphed into this rough layout: … which was refined as this unfinished tempera setting: … which evolved into this finished RCA Victor Red Seal cover: Till Eulenspiegel was an impudent prankster in German folklore. Flora rendered several pen and ink drawings of the trickster in the 1990s. Perhaps he recognized a kindred spirit.

Pen & ink with tempera, year unknown (ca. early 1990s). One of countless water’s edge works in the collection. Flora lived on Long Island Sound, loved boats, loved the seaside, and drew inspiration from all. Head Harbor Lighthouse, built from heavy timber in 1829, sits on Campobello Island in New Brunswick. It was the summer home of FDR.

We’ve finally collected an online gallery of Flora’s 20 children’s books (17 of which he authored). They’re up for viewing at JimFloraArt.com, the Flora family website. While you’re there, the site has had a makeover and includes three pages of original Flora art from the 1990s that’s being offered for sale.

Pen and ink, 1998. One of several works by Flora with this title, in various media, rendered in the final years of his life. On this date ten years ago, James Flora passed away at age 84. Nine days later the New York Times published an obit by Steven Heller. I posted a tribute at the WFMU blog, citing Flora’s posthumous contributions to the station’s visual identity.

Jim Flora Art LLC has released a limited edition fine art print of an uncirculated Flora pen & ink drawing from the mid-1990s entitled Sunday Morning. This is the latest-life work by the artist we have offered in a numbered edition. Two prints are now listed on eBay at a launch price, after which subsequent prints will be offered at increasing prices as edition depletes. Update: Launch prints have been sold. Edition now available at…

Detail, Mme Tellier’s Picnic, pen & ink, 1995

Trio, pen & ink with felt-tip marker on paper, ca. 1993-94

Self-Portrait: The Artist at Lunchtime pen & ink on paper, June, 1998

Flora did some mind-bending works in the 1990s — more curiously sinister than his work in the 1980s (IMHO). Quetzlcoatl [sic] Returns is an acrylic on stretched canvas (15″ x 30″) rendered within a year of the artist’s death. Flora, who lived in Mexico in 1950-1951, was a longtime enthusiast of Latin American folkways.