James Bama: Personal Works

Book excerpt: A living legend's most personal and cherished images ... revealed for the first time! Created entirely for personal pleasure over the course of five decades, these 67 paintings and 24 photographs capture the lives of the people Bama encountered during his trips to Tibet, Mexico, Japan, China and elsewhere. Most of these images have never been published and have only been seen by the artist's immediate circle of family and friends. All are lush, staggeringly beautiful evocations of a moment and place, and they are accompanied by Bama's commentary. An acknowledged master of his craft, James Bama began his legendary career with atmospheric, dynamic and dramatic paperback book covers that fired the imaginations of generations of readers, even as they inspired countless youths to become illustrators themselves. His later body of work, which distilled the spirit of the rapidly disappearing American West by focusing on the rugged individuals who still inhabit those vast and empty plains, has similarly enthralled another generation of fans and artists. More recently, Bama threw open his studio doors and shared a wealth of previously unseen preliminary studies within the pages of the James Bama Sketchbook. And now Bama shares with us the largely private work of which he is most proud.