Visions Of Space (by David A. Hardy) With its generous dimensions, this beautiful book is bit too thick (read: heavy) to be ideal. It still has to be said that, carrying the cover blurb "Artists Journey Through The Cosmos", Hardy has a done a great job gathering all these images into different thematic chapters entitled: The Old Masters (The Artists Who Led The Way), Space Craft (The Nuts And Bolts Of Space Art), Space Stations (Stepping-Stones Into Space), Back To The Moon (The Next Small Step For Man), The Solar System (From Past To Future), To The Stars (From Red Dwarfs To Black Holes), Space Fantasies (The New Renaissance), Alien Landscapes (Finding Other Worlds On Earth), along with numerous sidebars delivering short artist biographies. The volume is 176 pages (plus the front & back cover) with 142 of them featuring a large reproduction and another 26 with multiple images. In its diversity, it does throw in a comic page and some charts & cutaway diagrams. 26 images are really large and spread over the center gutter - four flunk out completely like that and usually I wouldn't make that my first choice in presentation, but what else can you do with these huge alien vistas ? Anyway, almost all the artists get some 'well-presented' display - specifically: Robert André (2), Beth Avary (3), Wayne Begnaud (2), Stefan Blaser (2), Chesley Bonestell (4), Kurt C. Burmann (3), Michael Carroll (4), Douglas Chaffee (2), Dennis Davidson (2), Don Davis (3), Paul DiMare (2), Don Dixon (3), Mark Dowman (2), Bob Eggleton (2), Carter Emmart, MariLynn Flynn (2), John R. Foster (2), Kelly Freas (2)*, Fred Freeman, Alan Gutierrez, David A. Hardy (4), William K. Hartmann (2), Paul Hudson (2), Mel Hunter, Kazuaki Iwasaki (4), Jean-Michel Joly, Pamela Lee (3), Alexei Leonov, Jon Lomberg (3), Angelo Manno (2), Hans Martens, Mark Maxwell (3), Robert McCall (2), Doug McLeod, Ron Miller (4), Pierre Mion (2), Chris Neal, John C. Olson (2), Larry Ortiz, Keith Page (2), Lilika Papanicolaou (2), Mark Paternostro, Ludek Pesek (4), Kim P. Poor (2), Pat Rawlings (2), Lucien Rudaux, Adolf Schaller (3), R.A. Smith, Andrei Sokolov (2), Kara Szathmary (2), Joe Tucciarone (2), Greg A. West, Raymond S. Wilson (2), and Helmut K. Wimmer (2). * - Note that both of Freas' pieces are better presented in his own collections on The List. other Astronomical art collections In The Stream Of Stars - The Soviet/American Space Art Book SEND US A COMMENT (goes via e-mail - all info kept anonymous, but comment itself may be shared . . .) |