Filed Under: "monsters"

That’s what we call this beastie, who seems to be self-administering a third-eye implant while balancing a bird with no eyes on his fingertip. The original art is—well, we have no idea. The image appeared in very reduced form (postage stamp-sized) on a Flora business card from the 1950s.

Untitled tempera on card stock, dated 6/42. Hydra-headed mutants abound during this transitional period in Flora’s life. Just a few months earlier he had departed his native Ohio and relocated to Connecticut to take a job with the Columbia Records art department under Alex Steinweiss. Actually, Flora never outgrew multi-headed mutants with bonus appendages. They recur in every period of his artistic life.

Untitled tempera with pencil on board, ca. 1942-43. Disjointed face atop a tin-toy windup key torso. No problem with that.

Illustration, “When the Night Wind Howls,” by W.S. Gilbert, anthologized in A Red Skel(e)ton In Your Closet: Ghost Stories—Gay and Grim, selected and edited by actor/comic Red Skelton. The cover of this 1965 children’s book was illustrated by the great Al Hirschfeld. The dozen-plus interior illustrations are unsigned and uncredited, but they reflect the unmistakable mischief of Mr. Flora.

This untitled tempera from the mid-1960s is currently in production as a silk-screen print by Aesthetic Apparatus, based in Minneapolis. It will be released with a companion print—different theme, but identical color palette. Both works, previously uncirculated, were discovered in a sketchbook in the Flora archives. We’ll post the other print shortly. Aesthetic Apparatus produced our Mambo For Cats and Pete Jolly Duo LP cover screen prints, as well as our Primer for Prophets series.

Illustration detail, “Long Day’s Journey Into the Insomniac’s Night”New York Times Magazine, October 1, 1967

Pen drawing on onionskin paper with glue residue, early 1940s, from scrapbook. This freakish apparition has been blessed by the artist with bonus arms that appear to be appendages of his head, which has a stem on which to balance a coat hanger.

detail, untitled tempera on paper found in sketchbook, ca. mid-1960s

Untitled pen drawing on onionskin paper, early 1940s, from scrapbook. Brownish residue caused by glue applied by the artist, who is also responsible for the irregular trim. There are hundreds of such miniatures in the collection.

Top section of untitled three-tiered tempera and pencil, from sketchbook, ca. early 1950s. The two lower tiers, using the same color palette, are no less comically inscrutable.

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.

Not quite hot on the heels of The Mischievous Art and The Curiously Sinister Art, Barbara and I are now compiling a third volume of Floriana. Tentatively titled The Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora, the book will be published by Fantagraphics in July or August 2009. Designer Laura Lindgren will once again transform our loosely organized text and Flora’s genial monstrosities into a tight, 180-page coffeetable bouquet. Over the next year, this blog will…