History of Art: Michael Parkes

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Michael Parkes

Michael Parkes

Michael Parkes (1944 – ) is an American-born magic realism artist specializing in fantasy painting, stone lithography and sculpture. Parkes' work is widely available in the form of popular poster prints in many print shops, and nine books of his artwork have been published.
Though he studied graphic art and painting at the University of Kansas, his unique style evolved in isolation, after a period in which he gave up the practice of art altogether and went to India in search of philosophical illumination. Born in 1944, he is considered one of hippie generation.

Early on, he painted in the generally abstract expressionist style common among his teachers, but after his pause for reflection he began to draw and paint in a meticulous style of detailed representation which enabled him to give full expression to his inner world of images.

The style was in principle realistic, the subject matter magical, and magic realism has characterised his work ever since.

He studied the esoteric doctrines of the East and the West, and his imagery is drawn from a range of wisdoms including the cabalistic and the tantric, but embodied in forms from his own imagination which are immediately accessible. Here strange beasts encounter mysterious winged women, good and evil fight out their immemorial conflict (though who can be perfectly sure which is which?), and in this weightless environment worlds are unmade and remade nearer to the heart's desire.

Even as a student Parkes was fascinated by various graphic processes, and in recent years he has become highly proficient in the difficult medium of the colour stone lithograph.