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Out of this World: the art of Josh Kirby @ The Walker Art Gallery

Saturday, July 21st, 2007

Went to see the exhibition of Josh Kirby’s work at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool today. I knew of his covers for Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels and some of his other cover art. There is a lot more to see here than just those. There are some of his film posters including excellent pieces for The Life of Brian (not used because it included too many bits cut from the final film) and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. One section covers his jigsaw designs another his horror novel covers. Of course there is a large section devoted to his most iconic work for the Discworld books. In fact there were so many of them in the end I felt a little overwhelmed. Of particular interest was the cover for Maskerade, I always thought the cover looked a bit odd and now I know why: most of the picture wasn’t used. The painting has a lot more going on in it than the cover showed including far more of the cast of characters. The perspective makes more sense when you can see the various layers of people in the theatre as you look down from somewhere up near the chandelier.

If your interested the exhibition runs till the 30th September 2007. You can find out more at the Walker Art Galleries Out of this World: the art of Josh Kirby web site.

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