The tagline of my documentary is "Illustrator of the Lost Art" for three reasons. First, it's an obvious (if perhaps tacky) play on RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. But the "Lost Art" denotes both the lost art of the illustrated movie poster, and how much of Amsel's own work has been seemingly lost throughout the years -- lost to collectors, lost to obscurity, and, worst of all, lost to greed.
I've heard several testimonies, throughout all the interviews I've done, that this is not what Amsel would have wanted for his work. He wanted everything to be kept together, and available for people to enjoy.
My old website on Amsel's work, www.richard-amsel.com (also www.richardamsel.info), attempted to archive everything I could find. Since it was first launched in early 2008, however, I've collected literally hundreds of additional and improved images that I've been saving for both the film and the book. I eventually intend to give the old site a complete makeover, merge it with the www.richardamselmovie.com site, revise the biography section, and update the art archive into a comprehensive reasource...but those will all have to wait until the film is done. I don't want to give everything away -- at least not yet.
But the biggest reason why I've opted not to share many images until now? It's because, with almost every high resolution image I've posted, some people inevitably take them, print them out or stamp them onto products, and put them up for sale on eBay, etc... And I sure don't want to be the facilitator of that.
Yet perhaps the time for me to share some of Amsel's lesser seen work is overdue. For every poster Amsel "won" (for lack of a better word), there are many, many that he did not. Some are relatively obscure. Others, high profile.
Perhaps the highest profile piece among these is Amsel's illustrated poster for 1983's TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, which was rejected in favor of a photographic design. This artwork was featured in the Christie's auction following Amsel's death, but up until now, only a black and white image has been published.
Here it is in color:
