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Welcome to the most extensive
fan website on the Internet of
JOHN BERKEY Artwork
* * *
Berkey's Promotional Flyer
The 2 Berkey Art Books
1994 Painted Space 2003 Art of John Berkey
Both of these books are out-of-print and are fairly expensive to buy nowadays, but I've heard that they might be reprinted.
* * *
Be sure to look at the Otis Elevator Berkey art page!
***************************
John Berkey's portrait of Hank Guenther
Who was Hank Guenther? The Guenthers were the next door neighbors of the Berkeys back in the 1980s, and Hank & John were the best of friends!
John did this portrait of Hank in 1981 and gave it to him as a present, and John even wrote "Hank Guenther" above his signature...
Hank is no longer alive -- his daughter Kathy Guenther contacted me in 2010 and told me that her Mom had this painting, but no one had a camera to take of pics of it until now! When I talked with Demi about this painting, she said she remembered it -- and now we can all finally see it!
* * *
1977 Folder by Berkey!
NOTE: Neither of these great 1977 paintings on this folder have never been posted on any other Berkey website before I posted them in 2009!
Here is what Michael Friedlander wrote to me when I shared these with him:
"Jim -- WOW... WOW... WOW... I can't believe that John did a future city piece (or 2!) that I have not seen before. These are absolutely my favorite works that he did!" --Michael
(or the other pages on the side links)
continued....
Welcome to the most extensive
fan website on the Internet of
JOHN BERKEY Artwork
Born 1932 / Died April 29, 2008
There are *1370* John Berkey paintings/images on this site, plus 90 or so enlarged details of illustrations -- a total of 1440+ 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!
* * *
John's Portrait of His Sister Janice
John did this portrait of his sister Janice Berkey Knapp in 2006, and it was the last portrait John painted.
* * *
John Berkey's 1962 "Water" Calendar
Donated by John's sister Janice in May 2012
...UNSEEN FOR 50 YEARS...
January / Measuring the Snow Pack
Detail:
February / "Man-Made Waterways"
March / "Food from the Sea"
April / "The Spring Rain"
(More to come!)
* * *
Last month was the 4th anniversary of John Berkey's death on April 29, 2008 -- I'm just glad that he didn't die in 1994 when he had his heart emergency! He was in a coma for 2 weeks, but he recovered and John lived another 13-14 years!
From the text in the below 1995 PREVIEWS interview:
"A year ago yesterday, October 1st, I had an operation on a dissected aorta... I was in a coma for a couple of weeks after the open-heart surgery and, then, in the hospital for two months. They told me the recovery time would be around two years and not to expect much... I actually painted most of the new pictures (around 50 for Card Set #2) in the last four months. It's been such a relief to get back to work and be able to paint. I didn't do the new pieces specifically for the card series, I just did them for fun."
Question: "Did going through a near-death experience change your perspective on painting?"
Berkey: "Yes it did. Painting is more pleasant for me now... I know it's not going to go on forever (laughter). The experience has changed the way I think about art work... I was surprised at how painting was so easy and effortless. In the past, I used to worry about certain aspects of painting and I've noticed that they are no longer factors in my work (laughter). And that's helped. After all, I am painting fantasy. Even though the creations in my artwork look like they're real, they don't exist..."
John lived another 13 years, and continued painting -- and passed away in 2008, four years ago last month.
The 1995 Card Set #2
The 1995 PREVIEWS Magazine Interview
(If you'd like a larger jpeg of this article so it's easier to read, just contact me...)
They also printed this ad for Card Set #2:
* * *
1989 Steamboatin' Magazine
The magazine printed Berkey's art print on it's cover:
* * *
So far I have located 33 Berkey Calendars!
16 Texaco, 4 Gulf Oil, 4 Massey-Fergussen, 1 New Idea,
3 Bucyrus Erie, 2 General Tire, 1 Brown & Bigelow reprint,
1 Water Calendar, 1 Pontiac Nature Calendar (above).
I've heard of 7 more that I hope to acquire... if I'm lucky...
* * *
John Berkey's 1962 Farmers Calendar!
Donated by Demi Berkey
Unseen for 50 years!
The January 1962 page:
The February 1962 page:
The March 1962 page:
The April 1962 page:
The May 1962 page:
The June 1962 page:
The July 1962 page:
The August 1962 page:
The September 1962 page:
The October 1962 page:
(Detail):
The November 1962 page:
The December 1962 page:
* * *
Berkey's 1963 "Farmers of the World" Calendar
Donated by Demi Berkey
Unseen for 49 years!
The Front & Back Cover:
An "EXTRA" page in this calendar:
Larger so you can see them better...
* * *
1962 "New Idea" Tractor Calendar
(I was 11 when this calendar came out...never saw it until now...)
* * *
John Berkey's Double-Mirror System
In the early 1960's Berkey invented his ingenious double-mirror system over his drawing board so he wouldn't have to continually carry his paintings into the bathroom to look at them in the mirror...
* * *
John Berkey's BUCYRUS ERIE Calendar Art
Donated by Demi Berkey
Unseen for 40 years!
Bucyrus #11 of 12
Bucyrus #12 of 12 -- The moving of Plymouth Rock
Bucyrus #10 of 12
Bucyrus #9 of 12
#8 of 12 -- BUCYRUS Martinson Tractor
#7 of 12 -- Building the Panama Canal
#1 of 12: President Theodore Roosevelt inspecting the Panama Canal in 1908
#2 of 12 -- NICE!!!
#3 of 12
#4 of 12
#5 of 12
#6 of 12 -- NICE!!
If anyone would like larger jpegs of these BUCYRUS prints, just contact me.
* * *
More Berkey Calendar Art from the 1960's
Unseen for 45 years!!!
Donated by Demi Berkey
Is that Berkey abstract art on the walls? (grin)
FOR SALE: My Extras
Berkey's very rare jigsaw puzzles ($50-100 each)
St. Louis Riverboat Art Print ($100)
Berkey calendars ($35 each)
Contact me if you're interested in buying any of these items!
NEW PAGES
To make the huge numbers of images on this site more manageable, I have set up these separate pages of Berkey's art:
(Click on the Left Sidebar Links)
<-- Berkey's OTIS ELEVATOR Ads
<-- Berkey's NATURE ART
<-- Berkey's JIGSAW PUZZLES
<-- TRIBUTES by Other Artists/Writers
<-- Berkey's 1961 (& '59 & '60) Calendar
<-- Berkey's POPULAR MECHANICS Art
<-- Berkey's TV GUIDE Art
<-- ROMANCE Art, etc., etc.!
* * *
IT'S OUT NOW!
Illustration Magazine #36 with my 40-page article on John Berkey!
See thumbnails of the issue online at:
www.illustration-magazine.com
Read how the article was put together:
<-- Click on my ILLUSTRATION ARTICLE Link
Read the story of Berkey's HEINZ FACTORY painting!
UPDATE:
Single copies from Dan Zimmer are SOLD OUT
If you want to get a copy, check the bookstores and eBay and various comic book dealers like Bud Plant & Stuart Ng Books, etc.! (It only took one week to sell out!)
* * *
This cruise ship disaster recently happened...
Here's Berkey's cruise ship disaster illustration for his 1979 Beyond the Poseidon Adventure book cover:
* * *
These Berkey Originals sold at auction on www.ha.com March 1st, 2012
Sold for $3,500
Sold for $3,250
Sold for $687
Sold for $1,562
Sold for $812
* * *
The History of this Website
I began collecting Berkey's art back in 1976 when I saw Berkey's King Kong posters and the 1977 Death Star poster, and then his TV Guide illustrations and a couple of his Otis Elevator illustrations and of course lots of his great SF bookcovers -- but things really went into high gear in 2008 when I got Jane Frank's ART OF JOHN BERKEY and noticed the Checklist in the back of the book!
I was shocked that so much of Berkey's art remained unseen, so I used the Checklist to track down as much of it as I could find. Many of the listings helped, but several of them lead to frustrating dead ends by merely listing the year when the art was commissioned instead of the year/month that the art was published... which made locating many of the illustrations extremely difficult (there are at least 40-50 paintings on that list I have yet to find! And several not on the list...)
The Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base was also helpful:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?22975
I first posted this website in October 2008, and with the help of several Berkey fans/collectors around the world & Demi Berkey's assistance this website has grown to amazing perportions! I sincerely thank everyone who has helped make this website possible.
* * *
FINALLY!
John Berkey's New York City Park skyline painting from the Nov. 1984 GOOD HOUSEKEEPING magazine...
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 28 YEARS
HERE IS THE COMPLETE PAINTING!!!
Donated by Demi Berkey
Beautiful Niagara Falls Art!
Donated by Demi Berkey
ABOVE: photo / BELOW: Berkey's 1964 calendar painting
Look at the boat and compare it to the painting below...it's a slightly different re-painting of the same boat!
BELOW: John Berkey did another Niagara Falls painting, this was for his 1977 calendar...
Berkey's 1977 Calendar is on the CALENDAR 2 Page...
Modern Medicine cover 1976!
Donated by Demi Berkey
* * *
A new Berkey Video clip!
http://vimeo.com/30890377
And you'll see this Berkey painting on the film clip!
* * *
See more on the ROMANCE ART page!
* * *
The Berkey Estate has a new website:
http://www.johnberkey.com/
John Berkey's SF art for sale!!
* * *
Albert Einstein's Desk
Albert Einstein worked at Princeton when he died on April 18, 1955 -- below is Berkey's painting of Einstein's Princeton desk and office -- Berkey started doing art for Brown & Bigelow in 1955...
BELOW is a photo of Einstein's desk when he died -- Berkey obviously added the famous E=mc2 equation and a few other things onto his painting of the blackboard, and shifted certain items around, but the pipe and the tobacco humidor and glass vial are still in the painting...
* * *
Qaddafi is DEAD 10/20/11
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!
* * *
John's Portrait of His Sister Janice
John did this portrait of his sister Janice Berkey Knapp in 2006, and it was the last portrait John painted.
* * *
John Berkey's 1962 "Water" Calendar
Donated by John's sister Janice in May 2012
...UNSEEN FOR 50 YEARS...
January / Measuring the Snow Pack
Detail:
February / "Man-Made Waterways"
March / "Food from the Sea"
April / "The Spring Rain"
(More to come!)
* * *
Last month was the 4th anniversary of John Berkey's death on April 29, 2008 -- I'm just glad that he didn't die in 1994 when he had his heart emergency! He was in a coma for 2 weeks, but he recovered and John lived another 13-14 years!
From the text in the below 1995 PREVIEWS interview:
"A year ago yesterday, October 1st, I had an operation on a dissected aorta... I was in a coma for a couple of weeks after the open-heart surgery and, then, in the hospital for two months. They told me the recovery time would be around two years and not to expect much... I actually painted most of the new pictures (around 50 for Card Set #2) in the last four months. It's been such a relief to get back to work and be able to paint. I didn't do the new pieces specifically for the card series, I just did them for fun."
Question: "Did going through a near-death experience change your perspective on painting?"
Berkey: "Yes it did. Painting is more pleasant for me now... I know it's not going to go on forever (laughter). The experience has changed the way I think about art work... I was surprised at how painting was so easy and effortless. In the past, I used to worry about certain aspects of painting and I've noticed that they are no longer factors in my work (laughter). And that's helped. After all, I am painting fantasy. Even though the creations in my artwork look like they're real, they don't exist..."
John lived another 13 years, and continued painting -- and passed away in 2008, four years ago last month.
The 1995 Card Set #2
The 1995 PREVIEWS Magazine Interview
(If you'd like a larger jpeg of this article so it's easier to read, just contact me...)
They also printed this ad for Card Set #2:
* * *
1989 Steamboatin' Magazine
The magazine printed Berkey's art print on it's cover:
* * *
So far I have located 33 Berkey Calendars!
16 Texaco, 4 Gulf Oil, 4 Massey-Fergussen, 1 New Idea,
3 Bucyrus Erie, 2 General Tire, 1 Brown & Bigelow reprint,
1 Water Calendar, 1 Pontiac Nature Calendar (above).
I've heard of 7 more that I hope to acquire... if I'm lucky...
* * *
John Berkey's 1962 Farmers Calendar!
Donated by Demi Berkey
Unseen for 50 years!
The January 1962 page:
The February 1962 page:
The March 1962 page:
The April 1962 page:
The May 1962 page:
The June 1962 page:
The July 1962 page:
The August 1962 page:
The September 1962 page:
The October 1962 page:
(Detail):
The November 1962 page:
The December 1962 page:
* * *
Berkey's 1963 "Farmers of the World" Calendar
Donated by Demi Berkey
Unseen for 49 years!
The Front & Back Cover:
An "EXTRA" page in this calendar:
Larger so you can see them better...
* * *
1962 "New Idea" Tractor Calendar
(I was 11 when this calendar came out...never saw it until now...)
* * *
John Berkey's Double-Mirror System
In the early 1960's Berkey invented his ingenious double-mirror system over his drawing board so he wouldn't have to continually carry his paintings into the bathroom to look at them in the mirror...
* * *
John Berkey's BUCYRUS ERIE Calendar Art
Donated by Demi Berkey
Unseen for 40 years!
Bucyrus #11 of 12
Bucyrus #12 of 12 -- The moving of Plymouth Rock
Bucyrus #10 of 12
Bucyrus #9 of 12
#8 of 12 -- BUCYRUS Martinson Tractor
#7 of 12 -- Building the Panama Canal
#1 of 12: President Theodore Roosevelt inspecting the Panama Canal in 1908
#2 of 12 -- NICE!!!
#3 of 12
#4 of 12
#5 of 12
#6 of 12 -- NICE!!
If anyone would like larger jpegs of these BUCYRUS prints, just contact me.
* * *
More Berkey Calendar Art from the 1960's
Unseen for 45 years!!!
Donated by Demi Berkey
Is that Berkey abstract art on the walls? (grin)
FOR SALE: My Extras
Berkey's very rare jigsaw puzzles ($50-100 each)
St. Louis Riverboat Art Print ($100)
Berkey calendars ($35 each)
Contact me if you're interested in buying any of these items!
NEW PAGES
To make the huge numbers of images on this site more manageable, I have set up these separate pages of Berkey's art:
(Click on the Left Sidebar Links)
<-- Berkey's OTIS ELEVATOR Ads
<-- Berkey's NATURE ART
<-- Berkey's JIGSAW PUZZLES
<-- TRIBUTES by Other Artists/Writers
<-- Berkey's 1961 (& '59 & '60) Calendar
<-- Berkey's POPULAR MECHANICS Art
<-- Berkey's TV GUIDE Art
<-- ROMANCE Art, etc., etc.!
* * *
IT'S OUT NOW!
Illustration Magazine #36 with my 40-page article on John Berkey!
See thumbnails of the issue online at:
www.illustration-magazine.com
Read how the article was put together:
<-- Click on my ILLUSTRATION ARTICLE Link
Read the story of Berkey's HEINZ FACTORY painting!
UPDATE:
Single copies from Dan Zimmer are SOLD OUT
If you want to get a copy, check the bookstores and eBay and various comic book dealers like Bud Plant & Stuart Ng Books, etc.! (It only took one week to sell out!)
* * *
This cruise ship disaster recently happened...
Here's Berkey's cruise ship disaster illustration for his 1979 Beyond the Poseidon Adventure book cover:
* * *
These Berkey Originals sold at auction on www.ha.com March 1st, 2012
Sold for $3,500
Sold for $3,250
Sold for $687
Sold for $1,562
Sold for $812
* * *
The History of this Website
I began collecting Berkey's art back in 1976 when I saw Berkey's King Kong posters and the 1977 Death Star poster, and then his TV Guide illustrations and a couple of his Otis Elevator illustrations and of course lots of his great SF bookcovers -- but things really went into high gear in 2008 when I got Jane Frank's ART OF JOHN BERKEY and noticed the Checklist in the back of the book!
I was shocked that so much of Berkey's art remained unseen, so I used the Checklist to track down as much of it as I could find. Many of the listings helped, but several of them lead to frustrating dead ends by merely listing the year when the art was commissioned instead of the year/month that the art was published... which made locating many of the illustrations extremely difficult (there are at least 40-50 paintings on that list I have yet to find! And several not on the list...)
The Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base was also helpful:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?22975
I first posted this website in October 2008, and with the help of several Berkey fans/collectors around the world & Demi Berkey's assistance this website has grown to amazing perportions! I sincerely thank everyone who has helped make this website possible.
* * *
FINALLY!
John Berkey's New York City Park skyline painting from the Nov. 1984 GOOD HOUSEKEEPING magazine...
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 28 YEARS
HERE IS THE COMPLETE PAINTING!!!
Donated by Demi Berkey
Beautiful Niagara Falls Art!
Donated by Demi Berkey
ABOVE: photo / BELOW: Berkey's 1964 calendar painting
Look at the boat and compare it to the painting below...it's a slightly different re-painting of the same boat!
BELOW: John Berkey did another Niagara Falls painting, this was for his 1977 calendar...
Berkey's 1977 Calendar is on the CALENDAR 2 Page...
Modern Medicine cover 1976!
Donated by Demi Berkey
* * *
A new Berkey Video clip!
http://vimeo.com/30890377
And you'll see this Berkey painting on the film clip!
* * *
See more on the ROMANCE ART page!
* * *
The Berkey Estate has a new website:
http://www.johnberkey.com/
John Berkey's SF art for sale!!
* * *
Albert Einstein's Desk
Albert Einstein worked at Princeton when he died on April 18, 1955 -- below is Berkey's painting of Einstein's Princeton desk and office -- Berkey started doing art for Brown & Bigelow in 1955...
BELOW is a photo of Einstein's desk when he died -- Berkey obviously added the famous E=mc2 equation and a few other things onto his painting of the blackboard, and shifted certain items around, but the pipe and the tobacco humidor and glass vial are still in the painting...
* * *
Qaddafi is DEAD 10/20/11
John Berkey did this illustration of Qaddafi for a 1990 Reader's Digest book:
* * *
Berkey's Promotional Flyer
The 2 Berkey Art Books
1994 Painted Space 2003 Art of John Berkey
Both of these books are out-of-print and are fairly expensive to buy nowadays, but I've heard that they might be reprinted.
* * *
Be sure to look at the Otis Elevator Berkey art page!
***************************
John Berkey's portrait of Hank Guenther
Who was Hank Guenther? The Guenthers were the next door neighbors of the Berkeys back in the 1980s, and Hank & John were the best of friends!
John did this portrait of Hank in 1981 and gave it to him as a present, and John even wrote "Hank Guenther" above his signature...
Hank is no longer alive -- his daughter Kathy Guenther contacted me in 2010 and told me that her Mom had this painting, but no one had a camera to take of pics of it until now! When I talked with Demi about this painting, she said she remembered it -- and now we can all finally see it!
* * *
1977 Folder by Berkey!
NOTE: Neither of these great 1977 paintings on this folder have never been posted on any other Berkey website before I posted them in 2009!
Here is what Michael Friedlander wrote to me when I shared these with him:
"Jim -- WOW... WOW... WOW... I can't believe that John did a future city piece (or 2!) that I have not seen before. These are absolutely my favorite works that he did!" --Michael
* * *
(or the other pages on the side links)
continued....