The Art of John Harris: Beyond the Horizon

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Harris published an article in Granta in 1962 on Cambridge's 19th-century architect/developer Richard Reynolds Rowe. He taught drawing for 25 years in the Cambridge Arts School (CCAT, now Anglia Ruskin University), and painted (topography and light) until this career came to end with a joint exhibition between the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge University School of Architecture. A catalogue was published by the Fitzwilliam Museum. In 1963 Benton-Harris received his draft papers for military service. He was posted to San Pedro, California, after basic training, and then to Vicenza, Italy, as a US army photographer. In 1965, he took leave to cover the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in the UK, where he met Jane Gaffney. The couple married the following year and Benton-Harris settled permanently in London, working as a staff photographer for the short-lived London Life magazine, which concentrated on capturing the cool of the swinging 60s. His absorbing vistas, immense in scale, have graced book covers aplenty, but now they’re getting their own spotlight.”– Barnes and Noble Benton-Harris was a teacher and a visiting lecturer on photographic courses at a variety of institutions, including Trent Polytechnic (Nottingham Trent University) in the 70s, the School of Documentary Photography in Newport, south Wales in the 70s and 80s, and latterly the London College of Printing (later the London College of Communication, UAL). In 1987 he was appointed adjunct professor of photography at the University of Michigan.

John Harris has produced book covers for many science fiction authors including famous names such as John Scalzi, Ben Bova, and Orson Scott Card. In fact, Scalzi himself, calls the artist’s work highly iconic, the phrase he uses is “Bookstore Iconic — which is to say it can be seen from across the bookstore.” (Harris p4) It is bold, striking, intense art that guarantees a good read. John Harris has also illustrated online fiction and produced artwork for NASA. One of Harris’ best known pieces came from when he was invited by NASA to see an early morning shuttle launch in 1985. Harris remembers trying to photograph the moment of liftoff with his camera. But rather than capture the feeling of excitement, he felt that the lens introduced an unwanted separation between him and the event. It wasn’t until the shuttle took off that he put the camera down and looked at the light and color produced by the launch’s vapor exhaust.Past Winners of the Chesley Awards". Chesley Awards. Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists . Retrieved 23 April 2021. The striking paintings and illustrations of English artist John Harris imagine a brightly colored, haunting world beyond Earth and even beyond the stars.”– Flavorwire Titan Books has released another fabulous art book of a contemporary science fiction artist. The Art of John Harris, Beyond The Horizonis as beautiful as the images contained in it.”– Tor.com

Although Harris’s interests were centred on the 18th century, the 64 Heinz exhibitions that preceded his retirement in 1986 were immensely wide-ranging, including Richard Norman Shaw, James Stirling, Giovanni Michelucci and Carlo Scarpa. But it is worth singling out Silent Cities (1977), curated by Gavin Stamp, on cemeteries of the Great War, a subject near to Harris’s heart, and the pioneering Eileen Gray (1973), curated by Alan Irvine. Thanks to Harris’s energetic curatorship the collection grew apace, and from 1969 to 1984 a model 18-volume catalogue was published, edited by Jill Lever, Harris himself contributing Inigo Jones and John Webb (1972) and Colin Campbell (1973).

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However, this realm of art also offers the maximum freedom, with the discipline of remaining accessible to its public. If you’re looking for something to set your mind wandering and spark some inspiration, I highly recommend a trip Beyond the Horizon – and take the kids, too.”– Geek Dad

With the sun shining through this great pall of cloud, the whole place was covered in a tangerine glow,” said Harris. “It was absolutely intense, and an extraordinary experience that can’t get captured by film.” Harris is one of the few commercial artists working today who dislikes the nature of computer enhanced art (he calls it a bloodless medium) yet he has produced some pieces in this manner. By taking the richly coloured roughness of his pastel sketches as starting points, so that the full bodied nature of his tangible pieces shines through, he develops them digitally by only a little. He is particularly fond of pastels as a medium, due to their hazy, atmospheric quality, which is, in fact, one of the key aspects of his art — the heightened sense of atmosphere his pictures evoke. Of particular note is the 'Works by Author' appendix, which displays several illustrations side by side, all the better to see how they work as a whole over the course of a given series. For myself, who came to Harris' artwork through Scalzi's 'Old Man's War' series, to see several illustrations from the books laid out together was both a chance to re-examine the paintings together, as well as an opportunity to reflect on a series of books I thoroughly enjoyed. John Harris is the artist behind the cover painting of dozens of science fiction books. His style is recognizable at a glance - vivid but indistinct, the line work blurred and yet the whole is understood at once. Harris was born in 1943, in North Staffordshire; he had an itinerant, partly colonial youth. He was educated at Winchester College, where he was a scholar. He began in Architecture at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University in 1961, and finished in Art History.The distinguished architectural historian John Harris, scion of a dynasty of upholsterers, spent his early years in a dim semi-detached house in suburban Cowley, on London’s western fringe. The rebellious child found solace in his bachelor Uncle Sid, whose passion for fishing, for archaeology and literature, and for exploring country estates was an inspiration. The state of sci-fi and fantasy art is a contentious issue. It's a hugely varied industry, but more and more now, I see the level of technical ability going through the roof. Acerbic, sometimes splenetic, in controversy, a connoisseur and collector with an eagle eye, a lover of good hotels and rich food (red meat, preferably sanglant, truffles, clotted cream and substantial red wines were favoured), and a focus of merriment and laughter, John Harris could not abide earnest bores. His kindness towards young scholars, whom he liked and encouraged, was lifelong. His great scholarly achievements will endure, but his friends will most remember his generosity and sheer zest.