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Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

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Sorry, It's Sold

Red Tide

Artist:Dean Ellis
Date:1975
Medium:Oil On Board
Dimensions:Sight Size 11" x 18" Framed 19 3/4" X 26 1/2"
Condition:Excellent
Original Use:Cover art for Red Tide, Ace Science Fiction Special #2
Price: SOLD
Full view
Full view
The artwork as it appeared in publication (included in sale)
The artwork as it appeared in publication (included in sale)

This complex, detailed, and eerie surreal painting by Dean Ellis was created as cover art for Red Tide by D.D. Chapman & Delores Lehman Tarzan (Ace Science Fiction Special #2). The painting shows a mutated reptilian scientist who is one of the last humans surviving in a dystopian underwater near-future. Post-apocalyptic scenarios where humans struggled to adapt to a drastically changed earth were a popular sci-fi trope in the 1970s, when a growing environmental consciousness and Cold War nuclear fears were both at the top of readers minds. Both these fears seem to combine in Red Tide, described on its back cover as follows: “If a water animal can change into a land animal, why should not a land animal sometimes change into a water animal? That was the goal of the research at Cobb Seamount, an underwater experimental station. Then they received the mysterious “Red Tide” broadcast – something about widespread epidemics… military retaliation … And suddenly there wasn’t any surface to return to. Now life in Cobb Seamount was no experiment – it was survival.”

Artist Dean Ellis : 1920 – 2008, was born in Detroit, MI. Ellis studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, and served in the Pacific during WWII. He worked as an illustrator and painter after the war, and in 1950, Life included him in a list of the 19 most promising young American artists. He moved to New York in 1956, and created covers for Ray Bradbury novels in the 1960s, which led to jobs painting cover art for many of the SF publishers at the time. He also designed postage stamps for the US and other countries, and his paintings have been collected and exhibited widely.

Simply double matted and framed under plexiglass. A copy of the book is included with purchase.

Detail
Detail
Framed and matted view
Framed and matted view
Verso of Ace paperback with text on illustration by the publishers
Verso of Ace paperback with text on illustration by the publishers

Red Tide

Artist: Dean Ellis
Price:  SOLD

Filed Under: Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: Ace Books, Dean Ellis, original cover art, paperback, pulp, sci-fi, science fiction, scuba
Added to Gallery: November 14, 2018

 

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    About Grapefruit Moon Gallery

    Grapefruit Moon Gallery, based in Minneapolis MN, specializes in vintage pin up and original illustration art.  We are the proud home of the Bunny Yeager archives.

    Since 2003, Grapefruit Moon Gallery has been a leading dealer of exclusive original paintings by Gil Elvgren, Alberto Vargas, Earl Moran, Rolf Armstrong and Henry Clive, as well as vintage photographs, prints, and period decorative arts in ceramic and metal.

    All artworks featured are original, accurately represented, and guaranteed to be the work of the named artist.

    Interested buyers may view pieces by appointment and we are happy to answer any questions you may have. [Contact Us]

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