John Conrad Berkey (1932-2008) was an artist known for his space and sci-fi-themed works. He created some of the early artwork for the original Star Wars trilogy. He has worked as a freelance artist since the 1960s, after an eight-year stint at a St. Paul, Minnesota advertising agency.
John has had a long and distinguished career during which he has avoided computers. However, John’s futuristic space images have almost single-handedly defined the look of modern, hi-tech space craft. Whether you know it or not John Berkey was the pioneer who has defined a lot of what we now accept as modern space design.
The Art of John Berkey Jane Frank examines all aspects of Berkey’s work, with more than 100 color illustrations drawn from all periods of his career-including personal illustrations painted for his own artistic satisfaction. Berkey himself contributes an autobiographical introduction. “His wonderfully facile style is the perfect balance between painterly impressionism and hard-edged realism.
