Something new from the paintings of Boris Valeggio. Biography of Boris Valeggio

I don't like fantasy, but I like this artist. Not so much by his stylistic works, but by traditional subjects that are less known. Therefore, I tried to pick up little-known facts from his life and lesser-known works.

Boris Valeggio (in some sources Valeggio or Vallejo) is a real Indian. He was born on January 8, 1941 in Lima, Peru in the family of a lawyer.

During his seven childhood years, Boris mastered the skill of playing the violin. But soon the violin is replaced by medicine, to the study of which he devotes two years of his life. It is worth noting that knowledge of anatomy later helped him in his creativity.

After Boris's friends noticed how well he drew, he devoted himself to painting and studied at the National School of Art in Lima for 5 years. At the age of 16, he received a grant to study in Florence, the ultimate dream for many aspiring artists. But, to everyone’s amazement, Boris refuses, and instead, in 1964, with 80 dollars in his pocket and a portfolio of his works, he emigrates to the USA.

"Vermeer, Rembrant, Leonardo - all my childhood I studied the works of these masters again and again. But most of all I love the work of two spanish artists- Murillo and Velazquez."

Thus, the new edition of John Herman's adventure series in the 1970s was extremely popular thanks to the covers created by Valeggio's hand. Many owners of books from the old series bought second copies, illustrated by the artist. Illustrations for the series of books about Tarzan (where Boris abandoned the usual blue-eyed blond European in favor of a brutal and sexy savage) were printed in a separate edition and successfully sold out.

Soon Boris Valeggio becomes acquainted with the fantasy style.

“I have always had a special love for the perfection of the structure of the human body, and fantasy allowed me to depict muscular and sensual bodies in all variations in all my works. And because I love human bodies, I always try to draw them as beautiful and perfect as possible.”

One of the most typical characters of Valeggio is a noble barbarian, boldly walking towards dangers and defeating the forces of evil and darkness. Critics believe that the artist imprints himself in this character.

Boris's second favorite character is the embodiment of femininity, but at the same time a brave heroine, in whom Doris is most often seen.

"When I meet you on the street beautiful woman, I like to look at her. Do I try to imagine how I would feel if I touched her? Or if I make love to her? No, but these feelings are partially reflected in my painting. And at this moment I just enjoy what I see."

In 1994, Boris entered into a second marriage with the artist Julia Bell, who is 30 years younger than him. Now Julia is the model for his Amazons. And he himself often poses for his wife’s paintings.

“The fact is that I myself have been involved in bodybuilding since I was sixteen years old. In my opinion, it is not surprising that I am interested in portraying people with beautiful and strong bodies. A naked body is natural. And if there was no sex, then none of us would simply exist.”

Valeggio rarely paints from life, so as not to force his models to stand for a long time in the pose he has chosen. Usually, before starting work, Boris takes photographs of models from the desired angles. He then copies the photographs and adds shadows and effects using brown acrylic, which creates a plastic effect and allows the illustration to dry faster and move on to new colors. However, Boris also works in traditional techniques, making sketches in oils.

Boris draws the backgrounds quite roughly, capturing only a few significant details and motives. His backgrounds are entirely a product of imagination, while his characters are filled with realism.

Most of his works are compositionally built according to a single principle: top part almost empty, since the title and author of the book are usually placed there. Therefore, the main “plot” is concentrated in the lower two-thirds of the image.

"In a bookstore there are always a lot of books standing close to each other, and often the decision about whether a book is worth buying or not is made by the cover. A successful cover attracts customers like a magnet." Knowing this, Boris uses erotic motifs, playing on our instincts like a violin.

Grace, grace, strength, charm, magic, struggle, passion - this is not a series of adjectives, but just a characteristic of the paintings of Boris Valeggio. As soon as you glance at the image for a moment, it’s as if a ball of boiling lava rises inside, rushing out. Boris Valeggio is the genius of modern Fantasy Art.

Path to the top

Artist Boris Valeggio was born in 1941 in Peru. His father was a famous lawyer, and Boris himself wanted to become a musician and devoted 7 long years to playing the violin. However, something went wrong; he spent two years studying at the medical department. In between, I was interested in drawing.

One day, his comrades saw his drawings and advised him to enter the National School of Arts. He becomes the best graduate and receives a job offer in Florence. But going to Europe meant changing my dream of living in the States. Therefore, with $80, he migrated to the United States in 1964.

Without knowledge of the language, housing and money, a native of Peru is forced to be a laborer in one of the American companies, scattering his talent on comics and Greeting Cards. Over time, Boris finds his style in fine arts, develops a personal system of images. For six months he wanders from city to city - Hartfort, Connecticut, New York. After 2 years he becomes a freelance artist, and for 8 years he takes on any order that comes his way, feeling on his own skin all the cruel realities of the publishing world.

Only in 1975 did the first long-awaited success come to him. The Marvel Comics publishing house pays attention to his works. First he is offered work with postcards, then with comics and, finally, with book covers.

1976 - the publishing house "Balantine Books" orders covers for books about Tarzan from Boris Valeggio. He knew how to please the public, abandoning the gracefulness of the European “man”, Valeggio presented the world with unprecedented power, a mountain of muscles, a bold and sexy man. It is at this moment that Boris Valeggio's talent comes out of the shadows.

Men and women

The artist Boris Valeggio, whose paintings are known throughout the world, changed the idea of ​​the ideal man and woman in the world of fantasy. The male character personifies the noble barbarian. Savages, athletic, sexy and masculine, are present in almost every picture.

While creating fantasy paintings, Boris Valeggio did not lose sight of the fair sex. If in the 60-70s heroines with wide hips were popular, now they have been replaced by athletic, majestic and graceful warrior witches. The athletic build, magical lightness and fantasy-based plot seem to say - this is Boris Valeggio. The artist's paintings are considered the best in the Fantasy Art genre.

Captivated by forbidden desires

Erotica. Exactly most of people who have seen his paintings characterize what Boris Valeggio creates. The paintings of this artist are like someone else, other world. Here, sexual violence, the desire for pleasure and human flesh are the order of the day, which confronts monsters and demons. Merging together, each element of the picture seems to oppose the world of tender and beautiful. It's as if Boris Valeggio is challenging him. The paintings that come out of his brush show the truth, reveal hidden human desires that can only exist on the border between the fictional and the real.

BORIS VALLEJO- "applied" artist. He does not expect frantic demand for his works from museums and art galleries because currently applied areas in art generally fall under the category of commercial art. Every year in the USA alone a huge number of books are published - from 50 to 60 thousand. Any book, be it a thriller or love story, should have a smart and attractive cover. A “seductive” image or picture will always provide the publisher with significant larger number buyers and profit volume, and we will take the liberty to say that from this point of view, Boris Vallejo is the unrecognized king of dust jacket art.

After the publication of a new edition of John Herman's adventure series and Gar's stories in the late 1970s, the publisher was pleasantly surprised by the sales results, and he became convinced that the choice of Vallejo as the cover artist was unquestionable wise decision. Many readers who already owned Gar's novels bought the new edition simply because they liked the cover! Vallejo could regard himself as a truly popular artist; who, like any other artist who creates popular art forms, also often underestimated by aesthetes, may not feel discomfort when someone looks at his work with contempt.

Undoubtedly, there is something special about Vallejo's work that makes a deep impression, even though it may not influence artistic taste person. This is, of course, the result of a conscious effort and a well-thought-out method. There is no secret about this: Vallejo openly talked about it in a book about himself, published by Ballantine Books, the main customer for his work. First, the artist’s creative, or, let’s say, “classical” imagination begins to work. The artist captures the essence of the mood of the scene, for which he then makes a sketch in the form of a "living image". The sketch that begins this path is brighter, more subtle and drawn freer and less clearly than final result. Perhaps this approach could be the best way to Parnassus, but that is not Vallejo's goal. It is important to attract the attention of as many people as possible: books must be a commercial success. The purchasing power of a book depends on whether the cover suits the taste of the middle class buyer and on how much it touches life ordinary person. Advertising tricks of the trade and the tactics of using famous movie stars to sell products also cannot be discounted as a means of marketing a product.

How does the initial sketch transform into the inimitable and instantly recognizable Vallejo style final result?

The first step: choosing a model that best matches the figure and image in the sketch, and photographing her in exact poses. Vallejo doesn't spend too much time looking and in most cases he is the model for himself. male figures(you see, it can be useful for an artist to have a muscular body). At first, as female model Boris used his wife, Doris Mayer. The current model is his wife Julia Bell, also an artist. Of course, when painting the Nubian warrior, Vallejo is not posing for the camera. He also hires models for various female types. He successfully copies photographs onto a painting and then applies shadows with brown acrylic. This gives plasticity to the forms, and the paint dries quickly, making it possible to apply new colors without having to mix them with the base. For this reason, most painters whose works are reprinted are satisfied with this technique. But not Vallejo: to a certain extent, it also uses traditional methods. He sketches with oil paints softened in turpentine when working on more detailed parts.

Boris is as familiar with the heroic poses of barbarian warriors as he is with the poetic description of a mysteriously romantic landscape or the eerie appearance of bizarre creatures from an alien world. The composition and colors of these stunning works of art confront the observer with the fact that they are influenced by the art of painting over several centuries. "Vermeer, Rembrandt, Leonardo - in their teenage years I studied the works of such masters again and again. However, my favorite painters were two Spaniards - Murillo and Velazquez."

But even today Boris expresses big interest to the work of their colleagues. There is no complacency in his attitude and he refuses to rest on his laurels. He continues to seek new inspiration, continuously strives to be higher than what he has achieved, and tries to become even more perfect and magnificent.

Vallejo can do several different things at the same time: in his humorous sketches, created for his own pleasure, he parodies himself and the entire genre. But he doesn't want to sell any of this. Why not? Vallejo and his genre are already “promoted”. He has won his fans, whose number continues to grow, and who accept him for who he is. That's why he no longer has to grasp at any offer like straws.

Boris Valeggio, or Vallejo as he is also called, is a contemporary artist whose creative path followed a winding path that ultimately led him to worldwide recognition.

Creativity

Valeggio was born in Peru, but he actively showed his artistic talents in the United States, which is why many sources call him a Peruvian-American representative of art.

It will be superfluous to talk about how the future representative of the “fantasy” style loved to draw from childhood, since this is indicated by his preferences in choosing educational institution. Boris successfully completed his studies at National School Arts at home - in Lima. His success was so remarkable that he received a grant to study painting in Florence. The rebellious spirit that the author would eventually “pour” into his fantasy paintings was thoroughly demonstrated by Boris Valeggio when he refused the benefits provided to him and went to the USA with a few tens of dollars.

The young man had a hard time at first. He was forced to wander through cities in search of best conditions for existence. Valeggio spent the first two years of his stay in the country of enormous opportunity as a hired worker, and then was able to afford to become a free artist. It must be said that this status was rather a fiction, since for the next eight years he tried in every possible way to realize his potential, creating illustrations in the “fantasy” style for large publishing houses in the country.

Own style

Working meticulously to realize fantastic characters, Vallejo formed his own style of writing. His main activity was creating illustrations for films. Over time, the artist was able to translate his ideas into the creation of graphic advertising. Paintings in the Valeggio style are certainly sketches with the participation of fantastic characters, which are distinguished by the realism of the image.

IN artistic style Boris is considered a fantasy writer. Looking at his works, you involuntarily plunge into the world of good dreams or rampant nightmares he depicts.

Main characters

The paintings created by Valeggio reflect mainly heroic images people with superhuman abilities. Among the frequently encountered images of the artist one can notice the images of mythical gods, Tarzan, Conan the Barbarian, mystical creatures. The bodies of the characters are depicted grotesquely, as if they all spend 24 hours a day in gyms and take steroids. However, this only applies male characters. Women, on the contrary, have voluminous shapes and look very erotic. However, this is one of distinctive features fantasy style.

The images of heroes are never based on sketches from life. This is the fundamental rule for drawing a Valeggio painting. Photos of the sitters - here a starting point to start working on the canvas. The point is not that Boris lacks experience or patience. He drew a lot from life before he came to the optimal formula for his work. Valeggio takes the photo and begins to depict it on canvas. As each stroke appears, the master appears images that allow him to transform real hero one who can take on the task of saving the world or a beautiful woman.

Animals in the artist's works

Valeggio creates paintings with amazing realism. Its secret lies in a long journey of studying the anatomy of humans and animals.

A close study of his work cannot help but notice that central characters most often are those that look like hybrids of an animal and plant worlds. They certainly show human traits, however, in general the creatures look like an entity unknown to the world.

The whole point creative path Valeggio's idea is to transfer a fictional world with non-existent characters onto canvas and give them life, giving them biomechanics and mysticism. In many of his works one can trace the artist's unique ability to combine individual physiological aspects of different animals so that ultimately a new biological species is born.

about the eternal struggle between good and evil

The artist’s works met with many reviews along the way, including admiration and outright criticism. The fact is that many of the paintings are permeated with overt eroticism, which is intertwined with symbolic battles of good and evil. In his paintings you can see how the most evil and powerful evil spirits were able to cope with their inner evil thanks to the embrace of charming beauties, captivating them with the perfection of their forms. In the artist's work special role played by ladies who provoke men to perform feats.

At the same time, they often act as diplomats who, with their beauty, were able to stop evil monsters. Perhaps it is no coincidence that this can be seen in the works of Valeggio. The paintings were largely created with the physical and moral support of the painter’s wife, Julia Bell, who repeatedly posed for individual scenes. Their family tandem is closely connected by artistic ties. Julia is also an artist who paints in a similar style to her husband.