Drew Struzan Ouevre

Prolific entertainment artist Drew Struzan released a comprehensive book of his work in 2011 called "Drew Struzan Oeuvre." With a new exhibit now showing at the Forest Lawn Museum in Glendale, California, it felt like the perfect time to re-visit this stupendous volume of work.

While Struzan admits that an "oeuvre" usually stands for the total output of an artist or writer, but because he is very much alive this book isn't exactly the be all/end all of his work. It is, however, a comprehensive volume that captures his artistry in music, movies, publishing, commercial art, as well as more personal pieces. While his most famous work consists of the posters for the "Indiana Jones" series beginning with "Temple of Doom," he also created the iconic red "Return of the Jedi" teaser poster -- originally entitled "Revenge of the Jedi." But his history with film goes back even earlier with posters for films like "Cross Creek" and "Tarzan." Even more surprising is his work in early album covers like Black Sabbath's "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and Ozzy Osbourne. His work on Alice Cooper's "Welcome to my Nightmare" has been labeled by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the 100 Greatest Album Covers of all time.

For the forward, George Lucas himself talks about when he first saw Struzan's work for Lucasfilm and how that engendered a three decade long relationship. He talks about what it takes to make a memorable movie poster and how poster art is art just like anything else. He calls it an "anthropological tool" in that it reveals "certain aspects of a culture, preserving them and offering deeper insight into the way people think."

Struzan's wife Dylan co-wrote the volume with him offering insight into Struzan's impoverished background and early signs of artistic genius. When tasked by an art teacher to create a drawing from a favorite painting, the exquisite result had the teacher looking at the drawing, saying nothing, and never coming back. With a Masters of Fine Arts from the Art Center in Los Angeles his intention was to be a teacher, but when his thesis was not written in a "scholarly fashion" he chose other paths. This led to his work on album covers which moved him into film poster artwork. The rest is history.

With 261 panels included in "Ouevre" there are plenty of familiar works (the "Harry Potter" series, the "Star Wars" special editions, "Big Trouble in Little China," and "The Thing," among them.) But he did a number of posters for smaller films, sometimes making the film seem better than it turned out to be. (The Brooke Shields starrer "Sahara" and "Masters of the Universe," for example.) The book also includes his work with comic book covers, magazines, the extended universe "Star Wars" books, and commercial posters like Disneyland's "Indiana Jones Adventure."

The book closes with more personal work, many that include his work with nudes that he considers "the most beautiful of creation. To Cover the human figure is to repudiate its beauty." His work can be summed up with something he says toward the close of the book. "Not everybody is going to get it. I know that, but I'm trying to say 'Can you see this for the love of it because I see it that way?'" He might have been referring to his work with nudes, but it really applies to all of it.

And yes. Yes we do.

To see Drew Struzan's work in person, you can visit the "Drew & Bob - The Masters of Movie Art" exhibition now playing through May 26th at the Forest Lawn Museum, Glendale, CA. For information and hours visit www.forestlawn.com/event/drew-bob-movie-art-drew-struzab-bob-peak/.

"Drew Struzan Oeuvre"
$49.95
www.titanbooks.com