description: Edited and compiled by Jonathan Hill, this is a brand new,profusely-illustrated hardback reference book on artist John Hurford whoquickly became one of the real forces behind the British psychedelic artmovement in the Sixties, and who is perhaps best known for the stunningrange of artwork he produced for OZ Magazine, Gandalf's Garden and IT etc. Featuring for the first time, a retrospective of hundreds ofexamples of his paintings, drawings, posters and book illustrations - thesum of a lifetime's work from 1964 to the present day. John Hurford's early work (as much of it still is today) was crowded withflowers, birds and insects - highly detailed observations from the naturalworld he saw around him in the Devon countryside where he lived. It wasoften coupled with finely drawn Tolkienesque fantasy landscapes, people andmythicalbeings; goblin-like creatures were a favourite, as were naked girls. Hispsychedelic style of painting and the subjects he chose were extremelyinfluential - young people (especially those within the emerging art schoolculture at the end of the 1960s) instantly related to it, and it sparkedoff a trend in itself when it first appeared. John Hurford should be universally ranked amongst the top UK artists of theSwinging Sixties. Revered at the time, in the decades that have followed hehas been completely overlooked, and is rarely mentioned even in the more‘serious’ and in-depth works on British psychedelic art history - modernresearchers and writers invariably focussing only on the work of MartinSharp, MikeMcInnerney and the ‘Hapshash twins’ etc. ("the usual suspects" as Hoppycalls them) and thereby missing out on a major part of the story. • PAUL CROSS of the website Sweet Floral Albion says that John Hurford is"one of the real unsung geniuses of the British psychedelic art scene" - afact that this book will hopefully change. • Evening Standard Art Critic BRIAN SEWELL says that the book was "notnearly as vile as I thought it might be." [18.8.2006]. Now that IS praise! • World-renown psychedelic poster historian NIGEL MANTZEL says that "JohnHurford is psychedelia's best kept secret" and that "this book is the firstmajor in-depth work on any British Psychedelic Artist ever to be written".
language: English
title: Johnny, the Work of Psychedelic Artist John Hurford
titlecomplete: Johnny, the Work of Psychedelic Artist John Hurford
publisher: Sunrise Press