The long-awaited series of fine-art screen prints
PRIMER FOR PROPHETS are now available on eBay. Very cool Flora illustrations of the American nuclear family (and their weird pets) during the 1950s, when people had
fried-egg eyes, dog food tins were
edible, and teens grew
bonus legs!
Subtitled "
A Flora '50s A-B-C," the images derive from a 1954 trade-only alphabet booklet titled
Primer for Prophets that Flora illustrated for CBS-TV. The booklet was not circulated to the public, but was intended to attract corporate advertisers to the emerging medium of television. Each page featured iconic Flora illustrations of past-tense verbs (A to Z) that reflected daily activities of the typical American family, suggesting products they would purchase.
The first four prints produced are "
ATE," "
DROVE," "
JIVED," and "
SMOKED." They are available as single prints or as a set.
The
PRIMER series was produced in a limited edition of 100 by Minneapolis screen studio Aesthetic Apparatus. Production specs are detailed in the eBay listings. Each print is hand-numbered and authenticated.
Over the next few years, we'll extend the series to cover the entire alphabet. The PRIMER illustrations reflect Flora at his post-war commercial peak. That same year, he began illustrating RCA Victor album covers, creating some of his most popular images (such as
Mambo for Cats). The PRIMER characters are consistent with the best of his RCA album sleeves.
NOTE: The 10-day eBay listings for these prints have expired, but the prints are now available through JimFlora.com. The above links go directly to the individual print pages on the site.
Jim Flora Art LLC just launched the latest in our line of upper body haute couture: the Jim Flora "Happy Horns" t-shirt. The illustration—a jazz buff making cozy with a clarinet and sax—originally appeared on a 1942 record shop retail banner showcasing "Columbia Album Favorites." Our previous shirts were digitally printed. The "Horn Buddies" shirt is our first silk-screened piece of fashionwear.
We also modified a previous shirt: the "Hot Notes" design (featuring a 1941 department store illustration), previously produced on white cotton, is now available in gray as well.
