Artist Gallery

Richard Powers

Richard M. Powers (1921-1996) brought fine art influences from abstraction and surrealism into science fiction illustration, where he was one of the dominant forces from the 1950s to the 1980s. He produced an estimated 1400 covers in almost all commercial genres, the vast bulk of them in science fiction. He was born in Chicago, and studied art at the Mizen Academy, the Chicago Art Institute, and the University of Illinois at Chicago before enlisting in the Army during World War II, which he spent at the Signal Corps Studios in New York. While in the service he won an Army Arts Contest with a portrait of Dos Passos "Three Soldiers" which was exhibited at the National Gallery in Washington. His first major art commission was a spectacular edition of Gulliver's Travels in 1948, which he did while studying painting on Monhegan Island, Maine and Dorset Vermont with National Academy member Jay Connaway. He exhibited his fine art in yearly shows at the Rehn Gallery in New York. A close friend of Ian and Betty Ballantine, his surrealistic science fiction covers became the house style for Ballantine Books, and he did more covers for Ballantine than any other publisher, although he worked for all of them, as well as for the major slick magazines. He moved to Ridgefield, Connecticut in 1954, where he stayed, for the most part, for the rest of his life. He died in Spain while visiting his daughter Beth in 1996 at the age of 75.

With thanks to Richard G. Powers, for creating this short biography of his father.

Note: The Estate of Richard Powers will be represented at Chicon 7 by Jane Frank - Worlds of Wonder.

Visit Richard Powers at

• For sales of original art and licensing of works, contact Jane Frank at wowart@wow-art.com or visit www.wow-art.com.
• Jane Frank, Worlds of Wonder, is also the author of The Art of Richard Powers, (Hugo nominee, Paper Tiger, 2001).