Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: The Flowering Bodies of Attilio Uzzo
- Attilio Uzzo’s cover for the 1973 edition of Michael Moorcock’s The Ice Schooner (1969) (Galassia #163)
If you’ve ever browsed through an Italian SF catalogue, the name that springs out immediately is the fantastic Dutch painter Karel Thole (1914-2000). Thole’s surreal (and often stunning) dominated the Italian visual SF landscape for years and even appeared on a handful of American editions. However, the main Italian SF press Casa Editrice La Tribuna (with its Galassia series) frequently commissioned new artists, often fresh out of art school, for short runs of covers. Galassia played an instrumental role in introducing Italian audiences to the New Wave movement. Issues often contained both translations of English-language authors and original Italian short stories and novels.
Milan-based Italian artist, sculptor, and jeweler, Attilio Uzzo (?) created five covers for the Italian SF magazine Galassia (most of the issues between #159-1976) in 1972. According to The Internet Speculative Fiction Database‘s (potentially incomplete) credits, Uzzo created two additional covers for Casa Editrice La Tribuna‘s Science Fiction Book Club series and one for Dall’Oglio’s SF Andromeda imprint. I’ve included all eight in this post. I could find little about him online. He has an old, and not very helpful, website with a few low-resolution examples of his art and jewelry. And here is a short video about a 1964 gallery exhibit in Milan with Uzzo’s work. In 1992, a book of his art title Attilio Uzzo: Pittore della Lealtà hit print. If anyone can find more information about him, let me know!
As for Uzzo’s art, I highly rate the first three I featured in this post. They depict unusual human bodies morphing/decaying into trees, sprouting alien flowers, arrayed against a background of surreal/flowing and amorphous backgrounds (themselves often evoking the body).
Italian covers were often on the experimental side of the SF art spectrum. The styles changed on a dime. Cover art produced in Italy might be my second favorite country after the United States for the 60s/70s. I appreciate their willingness to commission more surreal than descriptive SF art, commission works from established mainstream artists, and support new artists who often later moved to other more lucrative artistic fields.
Let me know your favorites!
Want to learn more about Italian SF art? I’ve covered the following artists over the years:
- Attilio Uzzo’s cover for Mauro Antonio Miglieruolo’s Come ladro di notte (1972) (Galassia #159)
- Attilio Uzzo’s cover art detail for an Italian collection Thomas l’incredulo, Thomas M. Disch (1972) (Galassia #170)
- Attilio Uzzo’s cover for the 1972 Italian edition of Daniel Drode’s Surface de la planète (1959)
- Attilio Uzzo’s cover for the 1972 Italian edition of Theodore Sturgeon’s Venus Plus X (1960)
- Attilio Uzzo’s cover for the 1972 Italian edition of Philip K. Dick’s Our Friends from Frolix 8 (1970)
- Attilio Uzzo’s cover for the 1972 Italian edition of George Dick Lauder’s Our Man for Ganymede (1969) (Galassia #176)
- Attilio Uzzo’s cover for the 1972 Italian edition of Poul Anderson’s Ensign Flandry (1966)
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