(This post has been updated to include closer views of Richard Powers’ cover art. Scroll to bottom to see more…)
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The first issue of Horace Gold’s Beyond Fantasy Fiction featured cover art created by the extraordinarily imaginative Richard Powers. Typical of much of Powers’ oeuvre, the finished painting features a variety of seemingly organic elements in combination with curved, streamlined, ostensibly mechanical shapes Akin to many of Powers’ works, any recognizably “human” form is deliberately minimized.
For another example of Powers’ work, see this post…
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At lower left, a woman with streaming hair flees (?) “stage left”.
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In the center, an upraised human hand, set against a brilliant yellow sky and partially obscured by clouds, is visible through an archway. There’s something vaguely Salvador Dali-esque about this scene…
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…while this panel epitomizes a common element in Powers’ work: A randomly-curved, asymmetrical, seemingly organic “shape”, is covered by a metallic carapace. A bluish-green sphere – a planet?; a symbol of Mars? – levitates nearby, while a “rope” draped upon both objects – the way in, or the way out? – leads through a raftered ceiling to an orange sky.
