REFERENCE: EXHIBITION - ‘James Avati: King of Paperbacks’ at GEMEENTE MUSEUM in Helmond - Holland

From October 9, 2005 thru January 15, 2006, the Helmond Municipal Museum presents the first museum retrospective ever of the work of Avati. He created attractive cover designs for the novels of authors of world literature like Steinbeck, Faulkner, Salinger, Caldwell and Moravia. Thanks to the unique combination of his personality and his talent as a painter, James Avati is generally viewed as the best painter of paperback covers of the second half of the twentieth century.The exhibition, entitled ‘James Avati: King of Paperbacks’, presents approximately 90 paintings, 20 sketches, 50 black and white photographs, 150 paperbacks and a video documentary.

PaperbacksIn 1950s’ America, during the so-called "paperback revolution", literary novels were sold in ‘softcover’ editions and had a circulation of millions. This way real literature reached a new audience, formerly not accustomed to reading novels. Realistic cover illustrations were used to attract the audience’s attention. Avati was the first and also the best of these paperback illustrators. Not surprisingly, his colleagues called him the "King of the Paperbacks".Over the past 25 years many of Avati’s original paintings have been rescued from the vaults of American publishing firms like Signet, Avon, Dell and Bantam. Today many of these paintings are considered real art.