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An Animated Life and The Art of Ray Harryhausen The second volume "The Art of Ray Harryhausen" is published!
Charles R. Knight is mentioned throughout a whole chapter in this new
book, published by Aurum Press, London and Watson and Guptill, New York.
Myths and Visions,
The Art of Ray Harryhausen, National Museum of Photography,
Film and Television, Bradford, England. Exhibition opens at the National
Museum of Photography, Film & Television on May 19, 2006 and will
tour to selected venues in the United Kingdom in 2006-07. www.nmpft.org.uk Curecanti National Recreation Area and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado, will be using twelve images of Charles R. Knight's dinosaurs for film and videos - to help the public gain a greater appreciation for the paleo scenes that occured there million of years ago. Mike O'Sullivan's article, Scientists, Artists Explore Ice Age Los Angeles, published for the Voice of America on June 28, 2004 says that at the center of the new Page Museum "exhibit are works by Charles R. Knight, who ... created lasting impressions of prehistoric animals, including Ice Age mammoths and mastodons, and much older dinosaurs." On May 2, 2004, a rather unusual collection of MARQUETRY, based on the Charles R. Knight murals that decorated the halls of the Field Museum, was auctioned by the Chait Galleries in Beverly Hills, California -- finally reaching a closing price of $169,750.00. Read the description which appeared at that time on eBay. In April of 2004, Billboard Books published the long-awaited autobiography of RAY HARRYHAUSEN, subtitled An Animated Life and with a Foreword by Ray Bradbury. "If Doré and Martin were my style," says Mr. Harryhausen, "Charles R. Knight's wonderful interpretations of prehistoric creatures were the basis of my models. Long before Obie [Willis O'Brien], myself and Steven Spielberg, he put flesh on creatures that no human had ever seen. His dinosaur and prehistoric animal paintings and sculptures had more than just a realistic surface quality; they also possessed scientific reality and natural beauty. He was the first to reconstruct prehistoric life in a romantic form and the first to work in close collaboration with palaeontologists to attempt to achieve scientifically accurate anatomy. His long experience in drawing and painting live animals in zoos, together with his romantic and vivid imagination, helped to instil his prehistoric reconstructions with a 'charisma' only found in living creatures ... "At the LA County Museum I vividly remember a beautiful Knight mural on one of the walls depicting the way the tar pits would have looked in ancient times. This, plus a picture-book about Knight's work my mother gave me, were my first encounters with a man who was to prove an enormous help when the time came for me to make three-dimensional models of these extinct beings." (page 14). You can order the book today from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN has published a "special edition" entitled Dinosaurs and Other Monsters, which contains an article by the late Stephen J. Gould that reprints three of the famous Knight paintings that originally appeared in the February 1942 issue of National Geographic. On February 6, 2004, the MESA SOUTHWEST MUSEUM of Mesa, Arizona opened the travelling exhibit honoring Charles R. Knight on the 50th anniversary of his death. Tom Wilson, the museum's director, introduced Rhoda Knight Kalt and thanked her for allowing the museum to debut the exhibit at the opening of its two-year tour. Dr. Robert McCord, paleontologist and curator of the exhibit, spoke on Charles R. Knight with the greatest of admiration. Rhoda Kalt then spoke of her childhood memories of her grandfather. Carlos Hernandez, designer of the exhibit, used an early photograph of Charles R. Knight painting to create an almost exact replica of the artist's studio. Included are Knight's finest tiger, Bengal Tiger and Peacock, and Knight's very last painting before his death in 1953, Jaguar Walking Through the Forest (see above). Many enthusiastic Knight admirers flew across the country just to attend. (Read February 5, 2004 press release.) Readers of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE enjoyed an extra treat in the November 2003 issue. An insert contained an article entitled "The Father of Paleo Art: Remember Charles R. Knight" which disclosed that "To honor the anniversary of Knight's death, his granddaughter, Rhoda Knight Kalt, unveiled previously unknown works from the family's collection, including a sketch of GEOGRAPHIC'S Titanotherium." It also mentioned the 50th anniversary tour and referred readers to this website. FEATHERED DINOSAURS AND THE ORIGIN OF FLIGHT is not only the latest book by dinosaur experts Sylvia and Stephen Czerkas (published by The Dinosaur Museum, Blanding, UT, U.S.A.), but it's also the title of their traveling exhibit which opened February 7, 2004 at the San Diego Museum of Natural History. The exhibit will continue to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, CANADA (no date yet) and then to other museums. As you enter the exhibit you'll see a 10-foot long introductory panel highlighting Charles R. Knight's reknowned drawing of "The therapod dinosaur Ornitholestes capuring its prey, Archeopteryx", made for the American Museum of Natural History under the direction of Henry Fairfield Osborn. This composition became the standard depiction of the two animals. To this day ornitholestes is traditionally portrayed as springing to grasp its feathered victim. David M. Brown has written a great article about Rhoda and her grandfather for the January 2003 issue of NORTHEAST MESA LIFESTYLE. Long-time curator of paleontology at the Science Museum of Minnesota, Bruce Erickson, has authored Dinosaurs of the Science Museum of Minnesota: A Curator's Notebook (ISBN911338-54-3). About 100 pages in paperback, it's crammed with excellent photos and drawings from the museum's extensive dinosaur collections. There are also numerous field photos and even fold-out quarry maps. Especially great are the photos taken in the early 1960s in the Hell Creek featuring Bruce and "Dinosaur Jim" Jensen excavating some beautiful Triceratops specimens. There's a color reproduction of a Charles R. Knight painting of Stegosaurus that was used as a "cartoon" for a mosaic in the reptile house of the US National Zoo that's never been published before. And you'll enjoy the little juvenile diplodocid skull, too. This is a terrific book and very timely as the museum will be hosting this year's SVP meeting. You can order the book by phone at (651) 221-9414. Price is $15.95 + $4.00 shipping. Minnesota residents add $1.12 tax. (Thanks, Dan Varner!) WILLIAM STOUT has issued the Charles R. Knight Sketchbook III, the follow-on to last year's spectacular Charles R. Knight Sketchbook II. Signed & numbered, 950. More than 165 drawings, etchings, sketches and studies of prehistoric and modern animal life, with more than 90% of this work previously unpublished. Included are some alternate pieces that did not make it into his Life Through the Ages: studies of caged animals, especially large cats; several species of fish; some interesting jewelry designs using various animals and exhibiting Indian and Southeast Asian influences; plus one full-page sketch of his daughter Lucy. Tributes are included, written by Joe Kubert, Al Williamson, Bernie Wrightson, Gregory S. Paul, Robert Peck, Doug Henderson and others. Nearly every dinosaur book published between 1900 and 1960 contained examples of Knight's work. His renderings so exemplified the extinct creatures that New York, Chicago and Los Angeles all commissioned him for murals in their natural history museums. Stout, an outstanding illustrator of dinosaurs himself, has gathered a wonderful selection of Knight's rare work. Terra Nova, 2003. SC, 8x11, 58 pages, b&w. All three sketchbooks can be ordered from Bud Plant Comic Art. THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE (222 North 20th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19103, 215/448-1200) has recently added two of Knight's paintings on its website, including the one shown here. The Tuesday, March 11, 2003 issue of the New York Times (in the Science Times section on page F3) featured an essay by James Gorman entitled "The Unbearable Loneliness of Being Homo Sapiens," about Neanderthal man and illustrated in color by a wonderful painting by Charles R. Knight of a family looking out from the mouth of their cave down towards a river. PALEOIMAGERY, a beautiful new book by Allen A. and Diane E. Debus that traces the evolution of dinosaurs in art, includes an entire chapter devoted to Knight entitled "A Mythic Place in Time -- Spirit in the Knight". It can be ordered from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The Winter 2002 - 2003 issue of In The Field, the Field Museum's member publication, has a tribute by Alexander Sherman entitled CHARLES KNIGHT: PREHISTORIC VISIONS OF A BELOVED MURALIST. PROMENADE MAGAZINE has a beautifully illustrated article on Charles R. Knight by Andrew Chaikin in the March 2003 issue entitled "Walking with Dinosaurs". Promenade is a 200-page coffee-table magazine distributed in larger metropolitan hotels. Arizona's MESA SOUTHWEST MUSEUM hosted a talk by Dr. Robert McCord of the Paleontology Department and Rhoda Knight Kalt, granddaughter of Charles R. Knight at noon on Friday, December 6, 2002 in the Museum Theatre. Dr. McCord discussed the accomplishments of the noted natural history painter while Rhoda Knight Kalt shared her childhood memories of him. YALE PEABODY MUSEUM OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, is planning its own special exhibit honoring the life of Charles R. Knight on the 50th anniversary of his death. Rhoda Knight Kalt will be speaking on her childhood memories of her grandfather. Opening date to follow. DINOSAUR SECRETS REVEALED, a two-hour documentary, aired repeatedly on the History Channel starting Monday, October 21, 2002. Among the many experts chosen to speak about Charles R. Knight were William Stout and Ray Harryhausen.
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS has issued a Commemorative Edition of Knight's Life Through the Ages, with a new foreword by Stephen Jay Gould and a new introduction by Philip J. Curie. It can be ordered from Bud Plant Comic Art, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS elected Charles R. Knight, as well as James Audobon, to their Hall of Fame in October, 2001 to celebrate the Society's 100th year. You can buy the centennial book, "Illustrator's 43" through the Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street, New York, NY 10021, 212/838-2560. October, 2001 also saw the publication of Jeff Rovin's horror thriller, FATALIS. According to Publisher's Weekly, "Saber-tooth tigers attack Los Angeles in Rovin's gung-ho second novel of cryptozoological horror. (In the first, Vespers, Rovin imagined mutant bats tearing up New York City.) . . . . "Rovin writes zesty action sequences, making strong use of local settings, placing the final showdown at the La Brea Tar Pits. Film rights optioned by Universal Pictures for Sylvester Stallone." The book's cover makes striking use of the classic Knight smilodon from the American Museum of Natural History. A book entitled "A Dinosaur Named SUE: The Story of the Colossal Fossil: The World's Most Complete T. rex", by Pat Relf with the SUE Science Team of the Field Museum of Natural History (September, 2000), prominently reprints on pages 26 and 27 Charles R. Knight's reknowned 1920's classical interpretation, T. rex Facing Triceratops. Available from Amazon, the book is published by Scholastic, Inc., 555 Broadway, New York, NY 10012. Special Exhibit: Conquering Darkness; The
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