The Art of Fantasy, Sci-fi and Steampunk (PIE × Hiroshi Unno Art Series)

This is a wonderful book, though aspects of it are a bit confusing. First, “sci-fi” and certainly “steampunk” are late 20th-early 21st century terms, but the art displayed is from the 19th (mostly the second half) and early 20th centuries. Second, most of the text of the book is in Japanese, although there is enough translated English text to give an idea of the author’s aims and ideas. Basically, he maintains that “Romantic” and “Gothic” European art and literature from the Victorian era (and somewhat earlier and later periods) and the late nineteenth-century fascination with machines were, so to speak, the grandmother and grandfather of today’s Gothic and Steampunk art and literature. In a general sense, this would be hard to deny, though I suspect that art historians might argue with some of the specific connections and generalizations Unno makes along the way.That said, the art collected here is fascinating. On the Romantic/Gothic side, a lot of it belongs to the Symbolist movement, which featured art that was dark in both literal and psychological senses; dark, melodramatic engravings illustrating such things as Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and Edgar Allan Poe’s tales also fit here. Lighter, and mostly later, art in the romantic vein is typified by Art Nouvean and turn-of-the-century illustrations of children’s fairy tale books by Arthur Rackham and others. At least equally interesting, and much less familiar (at least to me), was art that, if it appeared today, would most certainly fit the Steampunk label: not only illustrations for the novels of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, which have the Steampunkish feeling built in, but satirical drawings picturing the predicted “electric life” of the upcoming 20th century.The colors and printing are a bit on the muddy side, not as sharp as I would have liked, but that may be the best that could be done with the originals. In any case, that’s a minor flaw when one considers the hundreds of pictures, many of them full-page and many of them seldom seen elsewhere, that fill this excellent book. I highly recommend it (and Unno’s other books, some of which, such as The Art of Decadence, overlap this one) to anyone interested in period or modern fantasy art.

While a third of the pages contains a language I cannot read, the pictures are spectacular for understanding period art samples and for inspiration.

Do NOT freak out when you open it and it is written in Japanese! The English translations are there. This book is amazingly illustrated and completely thought out. I cannot wait to delve in more.

Great images but words not in English. I was aware before I purchased the book.

Graphic wonderland! Beautiful book, beautiful content! I’m absolutly loving the design of Hiroshi Unnos books. Engravings and illustrations abound. This book is beautiful! Love the matte paper. Much preferred over glossy stock.

Here's why I bought this book:- to fill out a sketchbook with drawings of dragons, castles, jets, snakes, dinosaurs, knights, etc- to pick the book up years from now and re-experience all my favorite drawings again- to learn to draw the mighty T-Rex, with foliage and trees in the backgroundIt worked! A great book !These are my 3 favorite aviation art books:- Aviation Art by Lou Drendel- Airshow by Phillip Castle- Great Fighter Jets of the Galaxy 1 by Tim Gibson

The text is pretty small but I'm mostly in it for the pictures. Beautifully laid out book. Excellent for reference or just the coffee table.

Contrariamente a quanto indicato nella descrizione, è arrivato con copertina flessibile. Restituito. Amazon faccia più attenzione delle descrizioni.

J’adore cette livre, c’est magnifique, avec des belles références, recomendé pour des artistes qui cherchent inspiration

great book