The history of Sci-fi art and illustration has had a rich and storied past. Generation of illustrators and painters have rendered their fantastic ideas on paper and canvas. The decades of the 1920’s - 1940’s saw the imaginative but crudely drawn pulp magazine gouaches of Frank R Paul. Virgil Finlay employed a scratchboard and stippled technique for such newsstand favorites as Weird Tales. J. Allen St. John crafted his fantasy oil scenes for the Edgar Rice Burroughs stories. The1950’s gave rise to more realistic and accurate illustrations of Chesley Bonestell for such magazines as Life. Then in he late 1970’s a true breakthrough in history of Sci-fi art was ushered in. It was Omni Magazine. It’s mission, to take a giant leap for mankind in visualizing new worlds. Hitherto, only painters and illustrators were hired to depicted Sci-fi worlds. Omni magazine was the first to consistently use photographers. They still commissioned top illustrators of the day such as E.I. Gieger but they were the ones to push photography. For this end, they recruited conceptual color photographer Mitchell Funk to pilot the nascence of Sci-fi photography. They used Mitchell for some interior illustrations. However, it was the important promotional ad campaign that was to brand the image of Omni as the coolest Sci-fi, Mitchell Funk worked for Omni magazine doing editorial and promotional content. Man on Road in Monument Valley predate the "Close Encounters of the Third Kind: poster that features the same iconography of a road going back into space.
Inkjet Archival Print on hahnemuhle paper baryta 40 inch, 60 × 40 in, Ed 3/15 , US$5,800 Plus Shipping
