JOHN BERKEY Artwork

Born 1932  /  Died April 29, 2008

There are 722 John Berkey paintings on this site, plus 70 or so enlarged details of illustrations -- a total of 770+ images -- and more to come!

Most other Internet websites just show 20-30 of John Berkey's really great spaceship paintings -- I have done my best to track down his other more "rare" art!

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A friend of mine found this Berkey in SPIN magazine January 1999 and forwarded it to me -- this was not on Jane Frank's Checklist, nor has it ever been reprinted -- in fact, I would guess that not one single fan of Berkey's SF art has ever seen this SPIN magazine painting!  Again, I've rescued another nice Berkey painting from the black hole of obscurity...


BELOW:  A really nice silver foil print of Berkey's AERIAL PIONEERS planes (which I would really like to see as a regular print)... 


Berkey's 1970 Harbor Tug art print...


A Big Surprise:

John Berkey's 1975 BERMUDA TRIANGLE Board Game for Milton Bradley!!



GLIDE PATH from 1981 was a real hard one to find... but I found it!


There have been far too many earthquakes lately...and here is John's 1986 earthquake cover he did for DISCOVER magazine...


The Oldest Berkeys I've Ever Seen!

Two of John Berkey's originals from the 1950s are currently for sale on eBay -- they are definitely from John Berkey's very, very "early" period, and could have been done as TUCO puzzles!...



BELOW:  At first I thought that this "Threshing Ring" puzzle was an early painting by Berkey (because it really matches the style of the two paintings above), but after further investigation I found out that it is NOT by Berkey, it's by an artist named William Medcalf... (I wonder if he worked in the same studio with Berkey back there in the 1950s?...) 


BELOW:  The 1970 DREAMING SUBURB -- is this a Berkey?  It sure looks like one!  But the inside credits say that this cover is by "Ann Meisel" -- but the more I look at it, the more I think they incorrectly credited this book to this other artist!  Until I find out from someone who KNOWS for sure, I am going to believe that this cover was by John Berkey...


BELOW: This Berkey prelim of the Titanic sinking is for sale via Jane Frank's WOW-ART website (I wonder if the finished painting had a night sky?)...


BELOW: Berkey's "impressionistic" Bluefin Tuna from the June 1973 SPORTS AFIELD (that was not listed on Jane Frank's Checklist)...




I finally managed to acquire a copy of Berkey's spectacular Space Shuttle Challenger poster (there are some copies for sale on eBay right now)...

...one of Berkey's shuttle prelims...

...and in 1986 when the Space Shuttle blew up Berkey did this series of 5 paintings for DISCOVER magazine (only the middle one is usually reprinted, the first 2 and the last 2 of the sequence are never shown)... 




BELOW:  Berkey's futuristic "flying mini van" from the February 2000 issue of POPULAR MECHANICS.... 

BELOW:  Berkey's 1972 STAR 2 cover has always been one of my favorites!... 



MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
 
This week I've managed to find nearly two dozen new Berkeys to post!!!!


ABOVE/BELOW:  Back in 1976 I saw this awesome Berkey Otis Elevator Company painting in ILLUSTRATORS 18, but for some reason I only managed to save a b&w xerox of it all these years -- I began to believe it was only printed in b&w -- but recently I did some research and found out that it was printed in COLOR, so this week I finally got a copy of the book and now I have this incredibly nice future city painting in FULL COLOR!!  (...hmmm, it only took 33 years...)


BELOW:  Another really nice Berkey future city painting for the Otis Elevator Company from ILLUSTRATORS 17 in 1976 (which I never saw until this week):


....and here is another earlier Berkey future city painting in ILLUSTRATORS 16...


BELOW:  A small print of this was printed in OMNI in the early 1980s, but I have no idea where it was originally published:


BELOW:  Berkey's painting for U.S. Steel that was printed in ILLUSTRATORS 26 in 1985: 


BELOW:  Berkey's "Buick in a Junkyard" from the March 1983 ROAD & TRACK magazine (which was incorrectly listed on the Jane Frank Checklist as being in a 1982 issue)...



BELOW:  This was a big surprise, I found a 3rd non-King Kong jigsaw puzzle by Berkey that was not listed on anyone's checklist nor posted on any other website!!... (the other 2 Berkey puzzles are posted further down this page)...

...and notice how the box cover didn't show the right side of the puzzle!...


BELOW:  This is perhaps the most recently published Berkey book cover -- for the August 2009 "Flights of Eagles"!!... (and below it is another Blish book published in 2008)...



BELOW:  As far as I can tell, this was an unused poster for the 1979 movie Meteor starring Sean Connery -- this was printed in the 1981 ILLUSTRATORS 22...


ABOVE:  A 1974 Berkey illoe for the S.F. Book Club that's never been posted on any other Berkey website!


ABOVE:  A Berkey building in ILLUSTRATORS 18 that looks like it might have been done for a Brown & Bigelow calendar!  /  BELOW:  A Berkey house in ILLUSTRATORS 15:


BELOW:  "The Genius" was one of the hardest Berkey magazine illustrations to find!  The wrong year was listed on Jane Frank's Checklist -- (they listed 1984, but it was really in the August 1985 issue) -- and when I finally got the magazine from the right year, the illustration turned out to be the published one called "The Model Maker"!....

...and John did at least 3 other prelims for this model car illustration...


BELOW:  A Berkey from the October 1983 ROAD & TRACK (which wasn't listed on Jane Frank's Checklist), it was just pure luck that I found this magazine: 


BELOW:  Oil drilling platform in a storm, printed in ILLUSTRATORS 28...



ABOVE:  Perhaps one of the "oddest" Berkey space paintings... there's something resembling a turkey gizzard head there... from ILLUSTRATORS 24 in 1983!


ABOVE:  Berkey's art for the 1975/76 book The Glass Inferno, this was in ILLUSTRATORS 17 -- I have yet to find a copy of the pocketbook.


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Michael Friedlander's 1st Visit to John Berkey's Home


ABOVE:  Michael Friedlander published the 1991 PAINTED SPACE art book and the two collections of John Berkey Trading Cards -- and the above picture was taken in 1990 on Michael's 1st visit to John Berkey's house and his art storage room!  Michael put together an 13-page Tribute to John Berkey when John died in 2008 -- if anyone would like for me to e-mail those pages to you, please contact me and request them.

An Interesting Side Note:  Over the past year since I began hunting down Berkey's "rarer" art, Michael Friedlander told me that I've found at least 100 paintings that Michael had never seen!

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BELOW:  Berkey did 7 interior illustrations for the Dec. 1995 POPULAR MECHANICS:









ABOVE:  Berkey's FAST FREIGHTER from POPULAR MECHANICS Nov. 1994 (which has never been reprinted anywhere nor posted on any other webpage!) -- Berkey did 2 illustrations of this incredibly neat ship, the other is further down this webpage!

BELOW:  Berkey's awesome 1988 Monorail prelim & finished painting!!


BELOW:  A previously unpublished/unposted prelim!...





BELOW:  Berkey's space telescope illustration in the Dec. 1985 LIFE Magazine:




BELOW:  By luck alone I found these 3 Berkey fly-fishing illustrations inside a 1975 Sports Afield that was not listed on Jane Frank's Checklist!...



(NOTE:  I know where the above 2 originals are for sale, contact me if you're interested.)

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ABOVE:  Me holding John Berkey's 1969 poster tribute to the Moon Landing!  
BELOW:  Me and my sister watching it happen live in 1969! What an awesome event!!!


BELOW:  These 2 Berkey originals from 1969 were recently up for auction on the Heritage Auction website:

http://fineart.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=5034&LotIdNo=25026#photo


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BELOW:  Hazard's Command from 1972 (no one else on the Internet has ever posted the complete cover until now, nor was it listed in Jane Frank's Checklist -- if you look at the pic near the top of this page with John standing next to the display of his books, this book is in the top right corner!):


Some of my favorite Berkeys from the GALLERY:








BELOW:  Berkey's other painting of his FAST FREIGHTER.... nice!!...


BELOW:  One of the two Berkey illustrations in POPULAR MECHANICS May 1992: 


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ABOVE: In 1969 Berkey did 15 book covers, and TRASK was one of them (and it's never been posted on any other website)!


ABOVE: Berkey's 1980 THE LAST DECATHLON cover (not posted on any other Berkey website).
 

ABOVE: The Watchtower, an early painting for Brown & Bigelow that is currently for sale for $595 on this website:  http://www.artandantiquesonlake.com/*widgets/gallery/detail.jspy?G=TG8908&P=TG57153931&F=/american.nxg&locale=en_US

BELOW:  John Berkey's 1983 SUPERMAN III movie poster:


BELOW:  This super-rare 1976 poster of KING KONG climbing the Twin Towers recently sold for $100 on eBay -- I always loved this painting, but was surprised that they never made a poster of it in the U.S.!

BELOW: The 1976 KING KONG PUZZLE that included the climbing painting...
   


BELOW:  The cover art for Berkey's 2005 Art.Org artshow catalog:

*(You can see the entire catalog at: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2630/3928953887_3305e8837f_m.jpg&imgrefurl=http://artorg.info/%3Fpage_id%3D2034&usg=__iVMgY9yMpFzqpYBCJyPXE1fE-xQ=&h=182&w=240&sz=51&hl=en&start=177&um=1&tbnid=q-12PVmrZZrg4M:&tbnh=83&tbnw=110&prev=/images%3Fq%3Djohn%2Bberkey%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en%26sa%3DN%26start%3D168%26um%3D1
 



BELOW:  This cover for SLIDE is still one of my favorites where Berkey very cleverly included the book title into the painting!...


ABOVE: A really nice 1972 SPORTS AFIELD Annual that has never been posted on any other Berkey art website!   /   BELOW:  Berkey's 1978 Annual...


BELOW:  Berkey's 1978 THIN AIR cover that has never been included on any checklist nor posted anywhere else...






BELOW: If you go to this website and watch the hour-long 1987 video film that John Berkey made of his art, you will see 50 examples of his BROWN & BIGELOW calendar art! 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6618976447331811568#

Unfortunately the video quality is not real good, but at least you can partially see them -- and maybe someday they will be reprinted!  Here are 9 examples: 









ABOVE: An early "practice" painting for Berkey's 1989 Eddie Bauer Catalog cover, BELOW:


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ABOVE: The interior illustration in the June 1993 POPULAR MECHANICS (see the cover further down this page) -- this is another Berkey painting that has never been posted on any other Internet website!


Here's the great cover for the December 1988 POPULAR MECHANICS -- it's been reprinted before... but Berkey's interior "cut away" illustration has NEVER been reprinted or posted on any other website!!!

(NOTE: If anyone wants a larger jpeg of any of the images on my website, just write and let me know which ones...)
 

A very nice signed art print called CINCINNATI 1988 was donated by a fan of this website (a print that I'd never seen anywhere else before)!...
 


The below 1967 SPORTS AFIELD cover came out when I was 17 -- and I never saw it (or any of the other of Berkey's SPORTS AFIELD art) until 2008-2009 -- so it took me 40 years to see them!!!!   (I started collecting John Berkey's art in 1976 when he did all of his KING KONG posters and STAR WARS in 1977, and I never knew he was doing all these nature paintings or calendar work for Brown & Bigelow in the '50s and '60s)....
 



Berkey's very nice "Deep Quest" illustration was in the January 1990 issue of POPULAR MECHANICS (this was printed in the 1994 trading card set, but it was so small and printed so dark that you could hardly even see it -- it looks totally different in PM)! 




BELOW: Another Berkey 1975 cover that has never been posted anywhere else:


BELOW: The wrap around cover for Miracle Play that has never been posted on the Internet before.... 



...And another 1968 Berkey illustration that was never posted anywhere else...



BELOW: August 1986 POPULAR MECHANICS illustration:


John Berkey's TUCO Puzzles

BELOW: An old rare Tuco puzzle by Berkey that I recently acquired... (which has never been posted anywhere else)...


I finally finished putting the puzzle together -- as I was doing it I was sure that it was missing some pieces, and I was right!  It was missing 10 pieces!!!  Oh well...


And here is another super-rare John Berkey puzzle:



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Below: An exceptionally nice Berkey illustration for the March 1999 SCIENCE FICTION AGE magazine (which has never been posted on any other website)!!...






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Are these John Berkey's

final published paintings??

BELOW:  This is the final piece of art listed in Jane Frank's checklist of Berkey art, from REALMS OF FANTASY Feb. 2003 -- how much did Berkey do after these two pieces?  At this time I have nothing to go on except blind luck to find anything published after 2003:


BELOW:  The cover of the April 2003 POPULAR MECHANICS (which was not listed on Jane Frank's Checklist)... and the interior art....


Berkey obviously did 2 versions of this "Battle Island" -- a thinner version for the cover, and a wider version for the interior illustration!  Compare the differences...



BELOW:  Berkey's "Maintenance Dock" was done in 2004, but was it ever published?...


Berkey's Final Published Artwork?

BELOW:  Berkey's 2006 cover art for HAMMER'S SLAMMERS 1 & 2:


NOTE:  When the publisher of Hammer's Slammers contacted John about doing a 3rd cover, John accepted the commission -- but he suffered a fall and his health deteriorated so that he was unable to do the 3rd cover.  Read the entire "Remembrance" at http://www.nightshadebooks.com/category/editorials/

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BELOW:  Published in 2008 -- sorry, I never liked it when publishers put giant color boxes over the artwork, in my opinion it totally intrudes and ruins the art!...





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NOTE:  This was the issue that the "Deep Quest" illustration was in!  (Notice the change in the diver's facial expression, on the cover he's smiling, in the version below he isn't...)


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John Berkey Art For Sale

BELOW: Six Berkey originals were recently up for auction at
http://fineart.ha.com/common/search_results.php?Ntt=berkey&Ntk=SI_Titles&N=50+790+231+ 

Sold for $334.60

Sold for $262.90 in December 2009

Sold for $298.75

Sold for $597.50

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BELOW:  The yellowed deteriorated original art of this 1968 sailfish cover!...


BELOW: Rare SPORTS AFIELD illustrations that have never been reprinted or posted on the Internet before now:








BELOW: This is an illustration from the Nov. 1964 SPORTS AFIELD by one of my long-time favorite artists HARRY ANDERSON -- both he and John Berkey had somewhat "similar" art styles, and if you'd like to see more about Harry Anderson, clink on the "Harry Anderson" left side link on my website...


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200 Berkeys

I estimate that I have found and posted approximately 200 Berkey illustrations that have not been posted on any other website on the Internet nor reprinted in any art book or in the two collections of Berkey trading cards! If no one else was going to do it, I figured that it was up to me to do it -- I couldn't just sit by while all of this great art was being lost and forgotten!

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BELOW: THE OLYMPIAN CARS 1976 (done about the same time he was working on his STAR WARS illustrations):


BELOW: This prelim for a water skiing calendar illustration is currently for sale on eBay, and below it is the finished art....



BELOW:  Berkey's illustration for the October 1967 SPORTS AFIELD (that was not listed on any checklist or ever reprinted or posted anywhere else on the Internet):



BELOW: September 1967 SPORTS AFIELD:




ABOVE:  Berkey's illustration in SF AGE May 1998 (which has never been reprinted nor posted on any other website).

BELOW:  2 prelims for Brown & Bigelow calendars that were for sale on eBay in mid-2009...









(NOTE:  Compare the above to the Portal Print further down on this webpage...)

BELOW:  Berkey's 1983 FIVE DOWN& GLORY (he got no name credit in this book):


BELOW:  1979's ILLUSTRATION XX book -- they reprinted 5 examples of Berkey's art, 4 in black & white, only one in color:


(See how much better it looks in full color!!...)



(ABOVE, the ILLUSTRATORS XX plane crash  --  BELOW:  The "repainted" plane crash illustration with a taller building in it....)


BELOW:  From the March 1983 DISCOVER magazine:


BELOW: This original and 3 prelims are/were for sale on eBay:


The person selling Berkey's original art for "The Trophy" works at XCOR and took this neat pic of the painting next to one of their airplanes:




ABOVE: Prelim  /  BELOW: Finished illustration for June 1993 Popular Mechanics:



ABOVE:  Prelim for TSUNAMI  /  BELOW:  1984 book cover:


See the painting on the floor behind John?....



BELOW:  This really great "Computer Campus" IBM ad/illustration appeared in the January 1984 issue of DISCOVER:


BELOW:  This very "odd" and "nothing" illustration of "Planet X" appeared in the April 1983 issue of DISCOVER:


BELOW:  Berkey's cover of POPULAR MECHANICS July 2000 that has never been reprinted in any book or card set:


BELOW:  Berkey's New York City skyline painting from the Nov. 1984 GOOD HOUSEKEEPING magazine (which has also never been posted on any other website nor reprinted in any book):

(NOTE:  It's a real shame that the idiot layout editor of this magazine chose to cover up the entire left side of Berkey's illustration with all that text!...)


(... oh well, at least he left the older couple and their dog in the picture....)


BELOW:  The Feb. 1986 DISCOVER magazine Flying Wing cover & interior illustrations:





BELOW: Berkey's amazing Heliport 2000 illustration in the Sept. 1989 POPULAR MECHANICS:


BELOW:  REALMS OF FANTASY June 2001 ghost baseball game:


BELOW:  REALMS OF FANTASY December 2001:


BELOW:  1973's wrap around cover for THE UPSTART (which has never been reprinted or posted anywhere before):



BELOW: 1982 FIGHTER oversized softcover book cover:



BELOW: Berkey's incredibly nice 1973 Fishing Annual cover (which has never been posted anywhere else):


BELOW: A rather "shocking" cover for SPORTS AFIELD October 1969 (which has never been posted anywhere else):


BELOW: Was this the "photo reference" for the above painting? This pic was in the January '69 issue...


BELOW:  This is a 1977 3-ring Flexiprint Holder Folder binder that was made by Colad Inc. in Buffalo, N.Y. that printed two of Berkey's really fine illustrations, one of which is this *SUPERB* future city painting:

NOTE:  Neither of these great 1977 paintings on this folder have never been posted on any other Berkey website before I posted them!!...
 
 

BELOW: Two Berkey poster prints by Portal Publications that are waaaaay "OUT OF PRINT":

 

BELOW:  The same two paintings as they appeared in B&W un-cropped in ILLUSTRATORS 23:



BELOW:  Ascent of Wonder, a 1994 hardcover:



BELOW: One of my all-time favorite John Berkey FUTURE CITIES!!...






BELOW:  Berkey's cover for 1973 ALEXANDER'S FEAST:


BELOW:  A really nice (and rarely seen until now) Berkey scuba diver cover from 1971:

 

BELOW:  This plane crash scene was one of 5 illustrations done for the Vol. 3 1991 READERS DIGEST CONDENSED BOOKS:



BELOW:  This really great sub illustration was one of 5 done for the Vol. 5 1990 READERS DIGEST CONDENSED BOOKS:



BELOW:  May 1966 ARGOSY Magazine illustration:



BELOW:  Berkey did 6 illustrations for the 1979 leather bound Franklin Library edition of WINESBURG, OHIO:



"The paintings I created for films have been the most widely used. I have done work for about forty different films and no two projects were alike. Some were begun after reading a script while others had still or pre-production artwork provided. I remember doing a movie that involved a horse as a main character. They wouldn’t tell be anything about the horse other than it was black. The scene was described as water, a ship on fire, and a boy clinging to a horse. The idea behind not providing me with information on the horse was that I could come up with a more heroic horse if I had not seen the real one. Although the painting was used, I never saw it in print. I worked on many movies from sketch to finished painting where the work was not used. I feel fortunate to have painted posters for a few big movies and whether a piece was used or not, there was always an appreciation of the artistic effort."  John Berkey, 1991

The Death Star Poster

John Berkey's DEATH STAR poster came inside the 1977 STAR WARS Soundtrack Album -- in 1991 when Michael Friedlander published Berkey's PAINTED SPACE he wanted to include this great painting in his book, but when he contacted the LUCASFILM people all they could find was this darkened version -- so that's the one that everybody sees reprinted today!  Berkey said in an interview, "It was the first time that I was asked to paint fictional space crafts not of my own design" -- and oddly enough, it seems that Berkey never saw the movie!

BELOW:  Berkey's prelim for the Death Star poster!...


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One of the Most Unique Berkey Paintings I've ever Found:



In 2008 this Berkey painting of HOOVER DAM came up for sale on eBay -- it is obviously one of the many paintings that Berkey did near the beginning of his career for the Brown & Bigelow calendars -- but here is the totally unique aspect of this painting:  Berkey signed it "JConrad"!  His full name was John Conrad Berkey -- and this is the ONLY painting we've ever found where he signed it "JConrad"!!




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Go to my John Berkey Gallery page

to view the 500+ other images!...
 


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I hope you enjoyed seeing these "rarer" Berkey pieces -- if you would like larger jpegs of any of these, just let me know!  Also, if you have a collection of John Berkey covers or art that you're willing to share, PLEASE CONTACT ME!!  I would like to thank fellow artist Robh Ruppel for sharing some of his images with me, and Jean Syoufi has helped a lot too.
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Errors on Jane Frank's Checklist


ABOVE:  While the checklist in the back of Jane Frank's book has proven extremely helpful to track down John Berkey's art, there were a few "mistakes" on the list -- like these 9 books that were on the list but the covers are *NOT* by Berkey!

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I still need to find:

   

Contact Jim Pinkoski via my Contact Page!