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Comic Art to Fine Art?

Started by delekkerste,

48 posts in this topic

delekkerste

delekkerste

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Question for the group (perhaps some of the artists' reps out there might have some better insight into this) - have any comic book artists successfully made the transition over to the fine art world? I'm not talking about going from comic art to other illustration art (e.g., there are numerous examples of comic book artists doing album covers, advertising art, magazine and paperback covers, etc.), but rather what we think of as traditional, shown-in-a-gallery fine art.

 

I know some of the artists whose art I own have done at least some fine art work to lesser or greater degrees (e.g., Jose Gonzalez, Enrich, Sanjulian, Joe Chiodo, Bill Sienkiewicz), though I don't think any of them have achieved a level of success greater than in the comic book/illustration art world. I would define a successful crossover as (a) having attracted a collector/fan base outside of the one established while working in comics and (b) prices for the artist's fine artwork commanding prices equal to or greater than his or her comic book artwork. Based on the above criteria, no examples come to mind off the top of my head (I'm sure someone would say Frazetta, though I'm not sure how much of his artwork I would classify as being out of the illustration genre).

 

So, anyone know of any comic book artists who have made a successful jump into fine art? Looking at all the beautiful James Jean artwork that has been posted here, I'd say that he looks like someone who could eventually get to the level I'm talking about, but I'm curious if any others have already achieved that level of success.

 

Gene

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*paull*

*paull*

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I can't think of any, but I can't see any reason why McKean and Sienkiewicz couldn't make the jump into the Juxtapoz magazine-style art gallery. They are far better than the artists that show in those galleries. However, in Bill S.'s case, he already sells for big prices without splitting with a gallery, so why make the jump?

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Joe AllStar

Joe AllStar

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Not all worked in Comic Books but certainly in related fields. Their work has crossed over to "fine art". Of course, a lot depends on your definition.

 

Frank Frazetta

George Luks

James Bama

Robert McGinnis

Lyonel Feininger

 

Joe Mannarino

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DNAgent

DNAgent

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The first artist that pops into my head is Jeffrey Jones. I'm sure some here can tell you about his artwork being shown in fine art galleries. He has created moody symbolic artwork as well as plein air landscapes that are certainly not illustration art...poetry.

 

For the future I am keeping tabs on James Jean, Michael Zulli and maybe Mike Hoffman being able to move away from the illustration genre. There are others...

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comix4fun

comix4fun

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The first artist that pops into my head is Jeffrey Jones. I'm sure some here can tell you about his artwork being shown in fine art galleries. He has created moody symbolic artwork as well as plein air landscapes that are certainly not illustration art...poetry.

 

I completely agree (there are some gorgeous fine art oils I have seen by Jones)....except that Jeffrey is a she now.

 

Chris

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delekkerste

delekkerste

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The first artist that pops into my head is Jeffrey Jones. I'm sure some here can tell you about his artwork being shown in fine art galleries. He has created moody symbolic artwork as well as plein air landscapes that are certainly not illustration art...poetry.

 

Oh, snap, that is a good example. "Blind Narcissus" by Jones is probably one of my top 5 favorite pieces of art created by anyone who has ever worked in comics.

 

Fellow Studio artist Barry Windsor-Smith would also come to mind. Though, I wonder how much of their fine art fan/collecting base consists of people outside comic book OA collecting circles... 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

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Solar

Solar

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McKean has had gallery exhibitions, his most recent being a showing of his photography. Mirrormask was basically a long, weird showcase of his multimedia art, especially since it didn't really have any semblance of a coherant storyline.

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Smokinghawk

Smokinghawk

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David Mack has crossed over to the mainstream art world?

 

The topic wasn't necessarily "mainstream" art, but comic artists whose work can also be considered "fine" art. But yes, Mack has done illustration for CD covers, calendars, and some other stuff.

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