Pete-Jolly-Duo

Pete Jolly Duo

200.00€

1955 (date of original work)
Screen print
Limited edition of 125
51 x 51 cm

Only 1 left in stock

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Description

Jazz pianist Pete Jolly was a prolific TV and film soundtrack composer. But in our world, he’s a pulsating, hyperkinetic hepcat who was twice caricatured by Jim Flora on RCA Victor album covers. This is a screen print of the artist’s swirly 1955 EP cover for the Pete Jolly Duo.

It was produced in a limited edition (125) using Jim Flora archivist Barbara Economon’s digital restoration of a vintage printer’s proof. Prints measure 20″ x 20″ (much larger than the 7″ x 7″ EP version), and use three acrylic screen printing inks meticulously matched to Jim Flora’s original colors on archival 100-pound off-white cover stock. Each print is numbered on the front and authenticated on the reverse. The name “Flora,” which was typeset on the original cover, has been replaced with the trademark “Flora” signature from the period. In addition, the musician’s names, which appeared in obtrusive typeset (non-Flora) blocks in the original, have been removed to better highlight the vibrating figures.

Given the organic nature of the screen printing process, small spots or specks are often present on some prints. However, such minute imperfections are common and do not detract or distract from the image itself. Due to the fine art print’s higher-resolution process, as well as superior paper, inks, and quality control, the colors in the print appear brighter, crisper, and more vibrant than the online image. Online color appearance may vary slightly depending on your monitor settings.

Jim Flora

Jim Flora, United States Of America, (1914 Bellefontaine, Ohio – 1998 Rowayton, Connecticut)

James (Jim) Flora is best-known for his wild jazz and classical album covers for Columbia Records and RCA Victor (late 1940s to late 1950s), but he authored and illustrated 17 popular children’s books and flourished for decades as a magazine illustrator. At the time, few knew that Flora was also a prolific fine artist with a devilish sense of humor and a flair for juxtaposing playfulness, absurdity and violence. Cute — and deadly. 

Flora’s album covers pulsed with angular hepcats bearing funnel-tapered noses and shark-fin chins who fingered cockeyed pianos and honked lollipop-hued horns. Yet this childlike exuberance was subverted by a tinge of the diabolic. Flora wreaked havoc with the laws of physics, conjuring flying musicians, levitating instruments, and wobbly dimensional perspectives. Taking liberties with human anatomy, he drew bonded bodies and misshapen heads, while inking ghoulish skin tints and grafting mutant appendages. On some Flora figures, three legs and five arms were standard equipment, with spare eyeballs optional. His fine art works reflect the same comic yet disturbing qualities. 

Born in Bellefontaine, Ohio, in 1914, James Flora was trained at the Art Academy of Cincinnati (1936-39). After struggling as a commercial freelancer, in 1942 he moved to Connecticut after accepting a job in the Columbia Records art department. One year later the label appointed him art director. Flora revolutionized the look of Columbia’s ads and retail circulars with his wild cartoonish illustrations. He was promoted several times, and though no longer art director, he began illustrating jazz album covers for the label in 1947. However, his executive chores with the company meant less opportunity to create art. In 1950, Flora resigned and moved to Mexico with his family. After 15 months of exotic life south of the border, during which he and his wife created a mountain of art, Flora returned to Connecticut in 1951. He embarked on a lengthy and prosperous career as a freelance commercial artist, children’s book author/illustrator, and album cover designer for RCA Victor. Despite the demanding deadlines, Flora found time to indulge his fine art impulses. He painted, sketched, created woodcuts, and made relief prints at home and during travels. Even in retirement, and particularly during the decade before his death in July 1998, he created an enormous body of work. 

Jim Flora artworks in La Fiambrera Art gallery

La Fiambrera Art Gallery is proud to present James Flora’s mischievous art to public thru his fine art prints, serigraph prints, and woodcuts, by special arrangement with the Jim Flora Estate and co-archivists Irwin Chusid and Barbara Economon.

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