I was thinking about portraits the other day, partly because of the “Making Faces” show currently going on at the Society of Illustrators, partly because I had just received a copy of Brian Movies that features Iain McCaig’s portrait of Harlan Ellison on the cover, partly because I noted the sale at auction recently of what, to me, was a not-terribly-good painting of Robert Silverberg by the late Ed Emshwiller.
What makes a successful portrait, particularly when the subject is a writer? The answer that immediately comes to mind is: personality. If the artist is able to capture something of who the writer is, not merely what they look like, and elicit responses from viewers and which prompts conversation... then there’s a good chance of creating art, not just a painted version of Glamour Shots.
Now, I’ve never really heard of any controversy surrounding a genre writer’s portrait; certainly nothing like the brew-ha surrounding John Singer Sargent’s painting of Madame Gautreau aka “Madam X.” The flip-side is that I’ve heard very few people say anything positive about some of the clever SFF writer portraits that have been done... so I think I’ll point out a few.
I generally don’t talk too much about the books Cathy and I do: I have nothing against self-promotion per se, but it’s not something I’ve ever done especially well or was particularly comfortable doing. Mark Twain once said, “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt,” and I’m always convinced I’ll prove him right.
Fall/Winter is considered the season for art books—the idea being that they make ideal gifts and lend themselves to perusing with a glass of wine while sitting in front of a cozy fire. Now, of course, glossy collections appear at other times of the year, too, but there is always something of a colorful avalanche that hits the shelves just before the holidays.
When I was growing up (sometime between the discovery of fire and the launch of Twitter) the Sunday newspaper featured a glorious mixture of color comics. Pages and pages of ’em: adventure, humor, detective, SF, and kiddie fare were all well-represented and some of the most popular strips received a full page to themselves. Dick Tracy chased a rogues gallery of cut-throats (both on Earth and on the moon!), Li’l Abner guzzled Kickapoo Joy Juice and dined on Shmoos, Steve Canyon fought Commies and Cold War spies, Dagwood ran over the mailman on the way out the door, and Prince Valiant roamed the medieval world.
Jane and Howard Frank are world-renowned for their extensive collection of fantasy and science fiction art, so it was understandable that the collecting community was buzzing when it was announced that the couple were putting some of their drawings and paintings up for sale. On October 15 Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, TX, offered 124 original works for bid and, despite all the worries about the economy, buyers were ready and waiting with their checkbooks in hand.
