Still in movie poster mode and continuing on from Mondo here’s short but sweet entry focusing on another of my personal favorites that I’d filed for posting and then – as is often the case – completely forgotten about.
The art in question is this Bob Peak example of fantastical, illustrative master craftsmanship, produced for the 1966 big screen musical adaption of Arthurian myth and legend. Despite starring possibly one of Ireland’s finest ever exports, the late, great Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave I’m not sure the movies really regarded as a classic, however the promotional artwork with it’s strong Gustav Klimt overtones almost certainly is!
Renowned American Illustrator Bob Peak (May 30, 1927 – August 1, 1992) made a name for himself after working on the poster for the classic 1961 musical West Side Story and upon this initial success Peak’s career took flight eventually spanning 25 years and more… Within this time frame Peak became pretty much the Hollywood’s default first choice, responsible for creating iconic artwork for classics like Rollerball and Apocalypse Now, so then it’s pretty much fair to say he also redefined the genre along the way.
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Star Trek fans will also be familiar with Peak’s work for it was he that created all promotional art for the first 6 Star Trek Movies, James White AKA signalnoise.com ran a post on those over on his always excellent blog, check that post out here: http://blog.signalnoise.com/2009/12/10/star-trek-movie-poster-artwork/
I’ll run a further posts on Bob soon, as I’m very much of fan of his Excalibur Artwork, in the meantime you can read a little more about his career here on Wikipedia or for a much broader selection of art and info check out his official site http://bobpeak.net/
A final note – the Image comes via the art and design blog BurningSettlersCabin.com curated by by Sean Adams. There’s another great article here on the Camelot Poster Artwork and Leo & Diane Dillon’s “The Fox” which I’ve also featured… Anyway do check out the full article: http://www.burningsettlerscabin.com/?p=5081
Personally, prefer Bob Peaks earlier Sixties-era work which make more use of flat colours and pattern (such as the central white face and hair above) rather than the realistically rendered painted work such as ‘Rollerball’ and ‘Apocalypse Now’. But hey, it’s all good.
Yeah I know what you mean there Alfie, this 60′s example is certainly my favourite…
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The poster is most definitely better than the movie!