Rebus

by James Jean

Over the past decade, James Jean has won critical acclaim for his art (including a record eight Eisner Awards in a row for his cover illustrations for the DC Comics series Fables), hosted celebrated gallery exhibitions around the globe, received numerous design awards, and developed a fan base of devoted collectors. Rebus showcases new work as well as important creative milestones including the eerie dreamscapes of his oil paintings, the elaborate installations and animations he created for Prada in 2008, his gorgeous illustration work, as well as never-before-published pages from his detailed sketchbooks. Page after page, this monumental book reveals new ideas and explorations from an artist whose voice, influence, and vision remain simply unparalleled.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 29, 2010

About the author

James Jean is a Taiwanese-American award winning artist and illustrator living in Los Angeles. He was born in Taiwan but was raised in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey. He was educated at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Upon graduating in 2001, he quickly became a cover artist for DC Comics, garnering seven Eisner awards, three consecutive Harvey awards, two gold medals and a silver from the Society of Illustrators of LA, and a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators of NY. He has also worked in advertising, and has contributed to many national and international publications. His clients include Time Magazine, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, ESPN, Atlantic Records, Target, Playboy, Knopf, Prada among others. He has also illustrated covers for the comic book series Fables and The Umbrella Academy, for which he has won six Eisner Awards for "Best Cover Artist".

James Jean currently has seven published works, all of which collect his illustrations and art.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Jean

Reviews

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures on my blog)

Rebus is an exquisite book. Large format, trimmed pages with red edges, 240 pages thick.

Rebus is a collection of James Jean's personal and commercial paintings from 2001 to 2011. In 2001, he was 21 and had just graduated from art school. This book is very impressive considering how much he has achieved over the last 10 years.

Some of his work which appeared in other publications are also collected here. There are Fables covers or his life sketches. There isn't much duplication overall.

There are work from his Kindling exhibition. Some of them have appeared in the similarly titled poster-book Kindling. There are his personal works, commissioned work from Prada, the panorama illustrations that appeared in the accordion book Rift. You might have seen them on his website, some are published in the book for the first time.

The illustrations are beautiful, haunting and inspiring at the same time. It's surrealism that's uniquely James Jean. These images are best seen than described. There are also some photos from his exhibition.

I only have one minor quibble and that's regarding the presentation of his panorama illustrations that span 8 pages. They aren't printed as gatefold pages which is the more appropriate way to present them, and possibly the best way they should be seen.

Rebus is an enthralling collection. Highly recommended for any James Jean fan.

[Catharina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so beautiful, love his style!

[Rxmi · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The White Serpent admires the selfless and tireless determination of the boy, and she starts to fall in love with him in return. However, as demons and humans are forbidden to join, the ocean begins to churn with rage... "

Moving, disturbing, inspiring son las palabras que Darren Aronofsky escribe sobre esta obra de arte, y no se equivoca en absoluto. Me supera el detalle, el manejo de color y todo lo que transmiten las obras de James Jean. Increíble, y la edición lo potencia al triple.

[Jun · Rating 5 out of 5]

honestly so beautiful, surreal and tragically genius

[Chad Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Jean is an artist I love. His work is beautiful, scary, surreal, imaginative, and complex. This book chronicles his artistic life from the years 2001 to 2011.

Jean's artwork has a fluidity to it. Figures curve and bend in surreal landscapes. In Jean's artistic universe characters often lack facial features or limbs, fanciful animals and plants abound, and strange situations are commonplace.

Jean's work for Prada is included in the book and it's fascinating to see how his unique vision works as commercial art.

I could spend months looking at this book and trying to figure out James Jean's personal worldview. I don't know I necessarily WANT to understand his worldview, but his art definitely reflects a singular vision.

[Ruby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous and highly varied art. The book itself is a work of art. Totally delicious. Yet not without some pretty strong and/or potentially upsetting images.

[Zanne]

45.00

[Jer Grafsgaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is comprised of beautiful illustrations.
It is not a literary text. However, it bears intrinsic value as another - book - art form

[Jennyappleseed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly amazing and beautiful.