The Chesley Awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy Art: A Retrospective

From Booklist
Like many other professional fellowships, the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (ASFA) gives out best-of-the-year awards in several categories. At first, they were called the ASFA Awards, but the year after their first bestowal, Chesley Bonestell (1888-1986) died. When next awarded in 1987, they were renamed in honor of that artist, whose breathtaking, realistic paintings of space exploration (see Ron Miller's Art of Chesley Bonestell, 2001) inspired plenty of artists as well as future astronauts. This album showcases most of the Chesley winners through 2002, including, most importantly, perhaps, small portfolios of the overall Achievement Award winners' work. This strain of illustrative art--most of it done for books and magazines--represents the last and, fortunately, probably permanent stand of romantic realism. In it, color is rich and luscious, lineation is varied and intricate, masses are bold and tactile, composition and perspective are dramatic and imposing. It descends from eighteenth-century history painting, through Ingres and Delacroix and the Hudson River Valley and Brandywine schools of American painters. It aims to stun, rarely fails, and at the hands of the latest Achievement Award winner, Donato Giancola, it just gets more stunning. No collection with sf and fantasy in it should make do without it. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
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Presenting the best of science fiction and fantasy art from the past 17 years, a true collector's item beautifully produced on high-quality paper. Established by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists, and named for the renowned painter, Chesley Bonestell, the annual Chesley Awards are bestowed by the practitioners themselves, and so carry a high level of prestige. Here are works magical and mysterious, terrifying and haunting, dreamlike and imaginative beyond belief. Among the remarkable people highlighted: Bob Eggleton, Jean Pierre Targette, Rick Berry, Kinuko Y. Craft, and dozens of other magnificent illustrators.

"This visually stunning work belongs in every collection of sf and fantasy art."--Library Journal

"It aims to stun [and] rarely fails."--Booklist



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This retrospective of the Chesley Award, which was established in 1985 in honor of the astronomical painter Chesley Bonestall, displays examples from the winners in each of the 12 categories (e.g., book cover illustration, three-dimensional art, gaming-related art, product illustration, art director, and artistic achievement). These annual awards (with the exception of 1986) are chosen by members of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy (ASFA). Also on display among this book's more than 300 full-color illustrations is a sampling from winners for artistic achievement, including such famous names as Frank Frazetta, Don Maitz, Michael Whelan, and James Gurney (of Dinotopia fame). In addition to the anticipated examples of the genre-dragons, fairies, planets, and thinly clad women-there are distinctively imaginative works like Janet Aulisio's interior illustration "A Bomb in the Head" for Amazing Stories and Rob Alexander's unpublished color work "Sinja's World." Biographical sketches of artists, a list of 1985-2002 nominations, and an index of artists and works are included in this visually stunning work, which belongs in every collection of sf and fantasy art.-David A. Beron , Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.


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