June 9, 2009

"Bob Peak: Father of the Modern Hollywood Poster"

Bob Peak in 1985

A really cool art gallery, Gallery Nucleus, will feature the works of Bob Peak all month long. Bob Peak was an American commercial illustrator best known for innovative design in the development of the modern movie poster. His artwork has been used on the cover of Time magazine, TV Guide, and Sports Illustrated. He also illustrated advertisements and U.S. postage stamps. His style is instantly recognizable. If you are like me, Peak's images were constantly somewhere in the periphery of your childhood view. As I was growing up during the '70s and '80s, Peak's art was to the visual what composer John Williams's music was to the aural. Just a sample:

Apocalypse Now


Star Trek: The Motion Picture


Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
(Peak did all the original cast movie posters)


Excalibur


Superman: The Movie


Rollerball


I wish I lived near Alhambra, California! I guess I will just have to settle for Space Center Houston's "The Cinema of George Lucas" artifacts exhibit.

(Pictures source)

3 comments:

tony said...

Yes, he also illustrated part of my growing up.Cheers from Tony.'hope all is well with You + Nacogdoches.

Amy said...

Classic! You are so right - that poster style is burned into my brain cells from growing up in the 70's. As soon as I saw this post I immediately thought of that original/ubiquitous Star Wars movie poster...but after poking around on the web, it was, of course, not the same artist (or you would have included it). It had that same dreamy sci-fi style though.

Chris said...

Hands across the water to you, Tony, on Heßden ßridge!

The Star Wars poster is definitely iconic, Amy, and burned into many of our brains. I absolutely would have included it if Peak had done it. I'm not sure who the artist was on that one. Frank Frazetta??