Meeting Aurora artist Mort Kunstler

[ChrisW]

I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Mort Kunstler this past Saturday. He's internationally known for his historical paintings, especially of the Civil War. But in his early days he was a prolific illustrator that provided Aurora with much of its exciting cover art. Probably best known to our crowd is "The Forgotten Prisoner". But he did many pop culture characters like The Man from Uncle and James Bond, historical figures like the Gladiator, knights and Jesse James, the Sport series with Johnny Unitas and Willy Mays, and MANY of the car covers! Mr. Kunstler was an early inspiration for me - as a young kid I would literally stare at his and Bama's covers (who happens to be a lifelong friend of Kunstler's) and dream of doing the same type of work some day.
His art has been used for movies including "The Hindenburg", "The Poseidon Adventure", and "Gods and Generals". And he's worked for all of the major publications of his day.
Mr. Kunstler was extremely gracious, and truly enthusiastic about seeing the old boxes and talking about them. And since this section is about Memorable Memorabilia, I'll mention that he cheerfully signed the stack of boxes I brought that featured his art.
He is now 78, but still producing beautifully rendered, highly collectible and significant works of art.
Here's a shot with an old favorite.

[Scatter]

WOW!! What a great weekend that must have been!!

[Mike Scott]

Here's some classic '60s Kunstler art from our "Gallery".

[MDG]

Kunstler also did a load of mens adventure mag covers--great stuff.

[michblk]

That's great stuff Chris!

BK

[gracebuster]

What a fantastic treat. How happy I am to hear that he is still enthusiastic about it all.

Was that at an art gallery? Looks like a happy guy. Imagine that he and James Bama and Basil Gogos are all still around. I'm sure that there are still some great illustrators out there whose worked touched us all so deeply.

[ChrisW]

Yea, Dan, this was at a gallery in Gettysburg dedicated to his work.
I was so impressed and heartened by his unabashed enthusiasm! He's the embodiment of what it takes to live a successful life - do what you love...

[artistguy]

Chris,

Thank you for posting this and what a joy it must have been to meet Mort... he's also one of my Illustrator heros, as is  Bama, Gogos, and the Hilderbrant Bros, sadly now just one Hilderbrant... Tim has passed on...

Thanks again for sharing this meeting!
Adam

[ChrisW]

You're welcome Adam.
Here's another shot of Mr. Kunstler with the first stack of boxes I brought in to have signed...

[westbatman]

Chris,

How cool is that! I love Mort's artwork. Your artwork isn't too shabby either.

Andy

[houseofdracula]

VERY COOL!

[Hepcat]

Legendary artist Mort Künstler (28 August 1931 - 2 February 2025) passed away earlier this year at the age of 93. While he's won much acclaim in recent years for his Civil War portrayals, he got his start in the 1950's with illustrations for the sweat mags:









By the late 1950's he was illustrating many and varied Aurora box covers:















Here are a couple of shots of a shelf from my model kit cabinet in which many of these kits can be seen:





And of course Künstler rendered the box art for my favourite toy of all time, the Mad Mad Mad Scientist Laboratory:







Rumour has it that Künstler's son was the model for the boy!

I contacted his staff some 10-12 years ago with a view to getting a giclée of his Mad Mad Mad Scientist Labratory box art but sadly Künstler did not have the source material he needed for my commission. But somehow it didn't occur to me to ask him whether he could redraw/recreate the box art for the Mad Mad Mad Scientist Laboratory nor did I think of asking whether he could do giclées of any of the box art he did for Aurora, e.g. Forgotten Prisoner of Castel-Maré....

Here are a couple of his Civil War pieces for which he's earned great plaudits in recent years:





And here's a book on Mort Künstler's artwork that I can highly recommend:



 

[Arnie 53]

Both Mort Kunstler and James Bama did exceptional work on those Aurora boxes, its why I begged my parents to buy me those kits in the 1960s.For the American Civil War paintings, both Mort Kunstler and Don Troiani do great work.