Monday, June 08, 2009

The Harlequin Exhibit

Decades of beefcakes, bodices and Harlequin romances - CNN.com: "As sort of a 60th anniversary gift to its faithful readers, Harlequin is displaying original artwork for its covers in an New York exhibit called 'The Heart of a Woman: Harlequin Cover Art 1949-2009.'

And before you sniff disdainfully at romance novel art, be reminded: That artwork sells a lot of books. Romance fiction is responsible for $1.375 billion in book sales every year, according to Romance Writers of America. The organization says more than a quarter of all books sold are romance novels, satisfying 51 million readers every year."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Classic nitwit article in that it essentially fails to acknoledge that these paintings were actually crafted by people, illustrators with skill and talent.

Art Scott

Todd Mason said...

The curator, in the video clip, for all her admiration for the artists, can't seem to be moved to cite any names.

Also, no recognition, despite the citation of the earliest Harlequins being across the range of popular fiction, that that has never really ceased, with Worldwide, the failed Laser experiment, Mira, etc.

Rick Robinson said...

She probably doesn't know the names, or doesn't care.

"I pawed through literally thousands of paintings," curator Elizabeth Semmelhack said. Virtually is right, since she really looked at books' covers, not paintings at all...