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) covers 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. 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 after the United States for the 60s/70s.

Milan-based Italian artist, sculptor, and jeweler, Attilio Uzzo (unknown dates) created five covers for the Italian SF magazine Galassia (issues between #159-#176) 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). I appreciate Casa Editrice La Tribuna‘s willingness to commission from Uzzo and others of his ilk art with a surreal than descriptive vision of SF art and to 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:

• The Cosmic Glimpses of Luciana Tom Matalon
• The Galassia Covers of Allison aka Mariella Anderlini
• Haunting Landscapes and Cityscapes: The 1970s Italian SF Art of Allison aka Mariella Anderlini
• Insectoid Visages and Other Nightmares of Ferruccio Alessandri
• Italian Tanith Lee Covers by Allison (aka Mariella Anderlini)
• Italian Covers for Philip K. Dick’s Novels and Short Story Collections
• Mariella Anderlini’s Covers for Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber (Corwin) sequence
• The Reddish Figures and Constructing Cities of Alberto Cavallari
• The Surreal Cityscape Covers of Ludovico De Luigi

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For book reviews consult the INDEX

For cover art posts consult the INDEX

For TV and film reviews consult the INDEX