Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Stanley Meltzoff


Over at Illustration Art, there is a wonderful tribute to Stanley Meltzoff's historical Greece paintings.

...And if you enjoy that, check out this essay Painting Water: The Marriage of Freedom and Control.

5 comments:

Josh Jasper said...

Nice. It reminds me of some of the covers on old western novels.

Tracy Flynn Art said...

I was just informed on another board I beling to that Stanely past away yesterday.
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 9:03 am Post subject: Stanley Meltzoff RIP

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Stanley Meltzoff died yesterday at the age of 89. Born in 1917, he received his Bachelors Degree at NY's City College, his MFA at the NY University Institute of Fine Art, and was a member of the Art Student's League. He was close friends with James Avati, painted illustrations for THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, LIFE, ARGOSY, and SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN (among many others), became renowned for his paintings of ocean life, and was elected into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. But he is best known to F&SF readers for his early paperback covers for books by Robert Heinlein and Alfred Bester. Meltzoff's contribution to SF was tiny in actual numbers (perhaps 15 covers), but the impact and influence of his art is profound and unquestionable. His painting for Heinlein's THE PUPPET MASTERS is widely considered to be a masterpiece (and I heartily agree).

A true giant has passed and we will not see his like again.

Stanley did a series of wonderful paintings of ancient Greece for LIFE (I think) in the early 1960s. Take a look here for a taste:

http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/2006/11/meltzoffs-paintings-of-ancient-greece.html
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--Arnie


sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Tracy

Irene Gallo said...

I know, it's very sad. I;ll be posting something tonight. Illustartion Art has a wonderful tribute up right now.

Bexrex said...

I was drawn to Meltzoff's work just recently (only days ago). I spent an evening looking at his website and the beautiful paintings there. I'm realizing there is too much institutional knowledge slipping away with the passing of great masters such as he was. Incidently, Heinlein is my favorite author and, unknowingly, I have stared at Meltzoff's fine illustrations on the covers of those great books for countless hours during my youth. Odd that someone so distant from myself was so close. Thanks for helping me know/remember him.

John

http://johnuibel.com

Anonymous said...

stanley, among other things, was the master palette master.