The Art of Mort Künstler

The Art of Mort Künstler

Known to fans and collectors of his art as "the premier historical artist in America' Mort Künstler is Americas most collected Civil War artist. After studying art at Brooklyn College, U.C.L.A. and Pratt Institute, he became a successful illustrator in New York where he received assignments from book and magazine publishers. Künstlers work can be seen adorning the cover of many of the pulp magazine and story magazines of the 60's, publications such as 'Male', 'Stag' and 'Adventure'. Geared towards a male readership, the covers often depicted a tense or dramatic illustrated scene to give a sense of narrative to the magazines content, guns, girls, peril and plenty of drama.

 Künstlers body of work is immense, a traditionally trained artist he masters the oil medium beautifully and his composition always provides the viewer with plenty to look at. Attention to detail is also excellent in his paintings for both the physical form and technical assets such as vehicles, weapons and buildings.

Collections of Künstler's work are published as limited-edition prints, and his artistic output places him at the forefront of contemporary historical realism. NASA made him their official artist for the space shuttle Columbia. He's illustrated a number of movie posters for adventure films, such as The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974). Künstler also created the illustration for the 1976 MAD Magazine cover which parodied the movie Jaws and comic art depicting women's liberation.

Among the eight books featuring his work, is the 1986 coffee-table book The American Spirit: The Paintings of Mort Künstler, which contains nearly 200 images and commentary written by historian Henry Steele Commager. An updated edition of The American Spirit was published in 1994

 

 Mort at work in his studio " I feel like I'm opening a window on a little part of history. What I try to do is create an image that will make you feel like you were there. I try to make it as accurate and as dramatic as possible."

 

Check out an in depth profile of the artist and his work here at the King James Galleries

Visit his official website here