Filed Under: "Europe"

Letter from Jim to his longtime friend Gene Deitch, 1972

For our Spanish-speaking (-reading, actually) Floraphiles, here’s a lengthy profile of our upcoming centenarian (Jan. 25) by Esther B. Vigil at BlissTopic.com. The title, EXORCIZANDO DEMONIOS AL RITMO FRENÉTICO DEL JAZZ, translates as “exorcising demons to the rhythm of jazz,” which is an interesting take on Flora’s devilish creations. The images were borrowed from our website, except for a 1950s photo we provided of Flora at work in his studio. The article includes the 1959…

Pen & ink, 1992, discovered in sketchpad. Like most Flora works of the 1990s, this cityscape has never been published or publicly viewed.

Henry Ford in Cetara, rough pencil drawing found in 1991 sketchpad. Cetara is in Italy. There’s no refined sketches and no indication the sketch was developed into a finished work. Flora traveled widely and artfully chronicled his globetrotting. This sketchbook contains no other images of Italy, but does contain a letter handwritten in a Mexican hospital while Flora was being treated for “over medication and loss of blood.” On the preceding page was a journal…

Tempera and pencil on paper, early 1960s. Another element of a large (16-1⁄2″ x 13-3⁄4″) work partially glimpsed here, and fully revealed in our forthcoming omnibus, The Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora. Above detail represents about one-sixth of the complete work.

Detail, Chioggia, early 1960s, acrylic

Detail, tempera on paper, 1962

Tempera on paper, ca. 1960 (one-quarter of 8.5″ x 7″ work)