When people ask us what kind of stuff we write, we like to show them the painting above by Mort Künstler. We love everything about this right down to the bookshelf nightstand. I mean, OK, this guy’s obviously going through a rough patch in his life but at least he seems well read.
Mort’s last name is German for ‘artist’ and let’s just say he’s one hell of a künstler. As a freelance artist during the 50’s and 60’s Mort did a lot of work for men’s adventure magazines like STAG and MALE. It’s this art that really influences our work.
His monochromatic paintings are really beautiful, it’s something we’ve been working on with most scenes in our upcoming animated film, Under the Knife.
Later on in his career he started making posters for action flicks like The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and The Poseidon Adventure.
Mort’s still putting paintings out there, he’s considered one of America’s foremost historical artists especially when it comes to the Civil War of which he has done extensive paintings.
I really love his work on the Revolutionary War paintings though.
He takes pains to make sure his work is historically accurate, here’s him talking about painting Washington Crossing the Delaware (above).
And lastly, the reason I’m posting this article about our favorite artist this week above all others. It’s Shark Week on the Discovery Channel and our boy Mort has done a ton of art featuring sharks.
You can find books of Mort’s artwork and reach out to him if you’ve got some coin and buy some of his work on his website here.
Also, our buddy Robert Deis, aka “SubtropicBob” over at MensPulpMags.com (where we got a lot of these images) is coming out with a book of Mort Künstler artwork soon.
