James Avati
James Sante Avati(December 14, 1912 inBloomfield, New Jersey– February 27, 2005 inPetaluma, California) was an Americanillustratorandpaperbackcoverartist. His father was a professional photographer inNew York City.His mother died shortly after his birth. He was raised by his maternal aunt and eventually his father married her. While Jim was still young, his father died and another aunt and uncle helped to raise him inLittle Silver, New Jersey,where he grew up. His uncle paid for his education atPrinceton Universitywhere he obtained a degree inarchitecturein 1935.[1]
He was always interested in painting and loved to paint. AfterWorld War II,Avati obtained a job designingdisplay windowsatFifth Avenuedepartment storesin New York. But he continued to paint on the side and in 1948, impressedKurt EnochatNew American Library,a new paperback publishing house. He was a hit from the beginning and changed the style of cover painting by the early 1950s. The authors he worked with included the likes ofTheodore Dreiser,William Faulkner,Erskine Caldwell,J. D. Salinger, James T. Farrell,Pearl Buck,John O'Hara,Mickey Spillane,Erle Stanley Gardner, Alberto Moravia, and James Michener.
He used professional models at first but soon used friends, family and people off the streets ofRed Bank, New Jersey,his home for much of his life, as models. He sought reality in his representations on canvas and real people worked for him better than professionals.
He has been called the "Father of Paperback Book Covers" and the "Rembrandt of Paperback Book Covers".[2]
Personal life
[edit]Avati eventually moved to Petaluma, California, to pursue a love interest, and fathered nine children through two marriages, including a son who became a well-known sculptor, James R. Avati, ofSalt Lake City,Utah.
He had stopped painting towards the end as he was losing his eyesight due tomacular degenerationand died (February 2005) at age 92.
References
[edit]- ^Schreuders, Piet. "The Paperback Art of James Avati", in:Illustration,Vol. 1, No. 1, October 2001, p. 16. "A large portion of Avati’s youth was spent in Little Silver, a small community in Monmouth County, New Jersey, near the Atlantic coast. Sadly, Avati’s father died suddenly of pneumonia in 1928. Luckily for the boy, he had a wealthy uncle who was willing to fund his college education at Princeton. In 1935, Avati graduated from there with a degree in Architecture."
- ^Dazzling Erin,Artist Profile: James Avati (1912-2005),unobtainium13.com. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
Further reading
[edit]- Piet Schreuders,"The Paperback Art of James Avati",in:Illustration,Vol. 1, No. 1, October 2001 — includes a checklist of his paperback covers.
- Piet Schreuders and Kenneth Fulton,The Paperback Art of James Avati.Hampton Falls, NH: Donald M. Grant. 2005.
- Martha Schwendener,"'The Painting World of James Avati' at the Monmouth Museum: Judging a Paperback’s Cover by Its Painter",inThe New York Times,11 August 2011. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
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