James Jean Offers Limited Edition “Eternal Spiral” Catalog
This expanded catalog features never-before-published works, expansive gatefolds, an animated lenticular image, new essays, and more
James Jean is one artist that only seems to get more popular with time. Over his 20-plus year career, the Taiwanese-American painter/illustrator’s unique talents have a proven appeal in such varied worlds as comics, film, and advertising to fine art and high-end fashion. By the time of his 2001 graduation from New York‘s School of Visual Arts, Jean had already been recognized with 4 separate prestigious art awards, a number which has multiplied exponentially since then. Rooted in fantasy, his work often contains the dark, yet whimsical qualities of Victorian Childrens Literature melded with aesthetic references to such historic art forms as Japanese block prints and Chinese scroll painting. There is a deeply emotional quality to James Jean‘s art which, somehow, leaves it feeling both nostalgic and fresh. A universal quality rests in this formula, which has garnered him critical acclaim for his work with clients that range from DC Comics to Prada, which have not only tapped him to paint murals in their flagship stores and runway backdrops, but incorporated his work into garments and accessories, as well. His cover art for DC‘s Fables series earned him multiple Eisner and Harvey awards and My Chemical Romance fans will be familiar with his album art for The Black Parade, as well as the covers he did for frontman Gerard Way‘s comic series, Umbrella Academy, which put several more illustration awards on the artist’s shelves. There is still no Academy Award for best poster art yet, but when that category eventually appears, Jean is likely to sweep that category, too. James did the posters for 3 different Oscar-winning films this year: Everything Everywhere All At Once, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, and The Whale.
As the demand for James Jean art grows, so does the price tag, but that doesn’t mean everything that he produces is out of grasp. The great thing about James is not only that he’s a painter first, or that he continues to be prolific with his non-commercial output, but that with the increased cost of his work, the details and quality of the product have been amplified along with it. A handful of years ago, you could purchase a James Jean print for somewhere between $200 to $300. These days, a 24-hour timed edition is generally around $500 before shipping and taxes. The thing is, James has been utilizing everything at his disposal to make these much more than your average giclee print, lithograph, or silkscreen. Rather than create something that is a much lower-quality facsimile of the actual painting, he’s worked to make these prints their own unique medium by including such various elements as embossing, spot gloss sections, and gold-foil accents. NOBODY else is doing this stuff; at least not to the degree that he is. This process offers meticulous detail and is something that he has worked to personally develop. It’s so unique and innovative that I’m not even sure if the terminology that I’m using to describe them is correct, at this point. This Wednesday, Jean is set to release a new catalog that incorporates some of these methods, along with new ones, into it for the very first time.
For those who can’t afford a James Jean print, let alone a statuette or original painting, his books have always been a pretty solid alternative. Like many artists, catalogs of his art exhibitions are often made available and, with Jean, they are always worth it. Those who follow his Instagram account know he is always painting and collaborating on projects, so there’s always new work to print. His catalogs are full of details and work-in-progress imagery and his shows tend to involve much more than paintings, like the stained glass or sculptural pieces that bring his imagery into three-dimensions. These bound editions incorporate everything, resulting in something of genuine value and substance.
Jean‘s most recent offering in this department was the Eternal Journey catalog released in 2020, which featured new work that had been exhibited at the Lotte Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, and marked his largest-ever solo exhibition to date, at that point. This updated English version of the Korean language catalog originally released during the 2019 exhibition, changed up the design and layout to include “additional images of the paintings, sculptures, and animation produced for the show, including new behind-the-scenes images and installation photos. The interior includes pearlescent and gloss-enhanced endpapers, pink gilded edges, and a signed bookplate.” This week, James Jean will release a further updated version titled, Eternal Spiral, and this thing looks bananas.
Although Eternal Spiral will not be available to purchase until Wednesday, the product page is already up on the James Jean website. At a cost of $80, it’s a bit of a jump from the $54 price tag on the most recent printing of Eternal Journey. That said, it can boast substantially more pages — 290 versus the previous 176 — and some next-level features that we’ve yet to see presented in any of Jean‘s previous books, or anywhere else before. The following details are taken directly from the product page
Eternal Spiral is an in-depth catalog of James Jean’s solo show that is currently traveling through multiple museums in China. Updated from the Eternal Journey catalog released in 2020, Eternal Spiral features never-before-published works, expansive gatefolds, an animated lenticular image, and new essays in English and Chinese. The cover features a tipped-in plate with gloss details, and the interior includes a signed foil stamped bookplate.
That cover image is of Bouquet II, a large-scale painting that James posted a work-in-progress photo of in May of last year and later released as a limited edition timed print in September. Meanwhile, the lenticular image that we’ve seen previewed appears to be a version of The Descendent, which was an 11ft tall LED installation initially displayed at Bridge House in Los Angeles, which saw the figure in the piece slowly descending upside down, as if underwater, as various flowers and plant life floated upward and past them. The idea to incorporate this shifting effect to mirror that of the original work is a brilliant move.
Eternal Spiral goes on sale at 8 am PT this Tuesday, July 25th in a limited quantity of 1000 copies. If you’re looking to snag one, my recommendation is that you’re on the site when it drops and ready to grab it. To increase your chances, it’s not a bad idea to sign into and/or sign up for an account and be logged in to speed up the checkout. We expect this thing to move quickly. Here’s the link.
Check out the preview video and product images below.
