The Frank Collection: A Showcase Of The World's Finest Fantastic Art by Jane and Howard Frank
01/11/2002 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
Pub: Paper Tiger. 112 page soft paperback. Price: £14.99 (UK), $24.95 (US) and $34.95 (CAN). ISBN: 1-85585-732-4. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. Check out: www.papertiger.co.uk
and www.wow-art.com
The Franks are acknowledged big collectors
of fantasy art in the USA. Judging by their information here, they
also pick up a lot of the SF magazines and books as well. Judging
by the cost of the original art they also sell for various artists,
they also have the kind of money that can afford to have such a
private collection.
With this book, there is the opportunity to see some of the art
they have in their home. I say 'home' tentatively' as it is more
a big private art museum that any SF/fantasy art fan would hang
their tongues out to own themselves.
To make it worse, not all the original art they have is on the
walls of their house and a lot of it is either put away or rotated
with others. This book gives a guided tour through the house, histories
of acquisitions of both paintings and sculptures. The areas of fault
tend to stem from having too many pictures at small size than full
page but that's more of a subjective opinion.
By having some of them smaller, it is possible to get what would
otherwise be double-page with art lost in the centrefold seen in
their entirety. I also didn't think it was necessary to describe
paintings that we weren't going to be see.
Unless you get invited in as a house guest, I doubt if you would
have known about them otherwise. It might have been wiser to have
replaced this information with perhaps a small selection of paintings
that had been rotated off the walls.
There are far too few books around showing a compilation of paintings
by different artists. After going through this book, there are a
dozen artists that I want to investigate a little further to see
more of their work. It would be nice to see a new book featuring
the work of the late Virgil Finlay for instance.
I have to confess that I'm a little envious of their collection
but think, at least from an insurance POV and affordability, I'm
better off with my posters and original comic-book pages and, oh
yes, loads of artbooks with such beautiful art.
If you're an art fan, poor or rich, then I think you'll find something
of interest here.
GF Willmetts
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