Exhibition Tom Adams' Agatha Christie Cover Story
9th – 25th April 2014, Street Gallery, IAIS, University of Exeter, EX4 4DD
The creative partnership of Agatha Christie and Tom Adams that resulted in more than 100 paperback cover paintings over a period of eighteen years is a unique relationship between author and artist and is unlikely to be repeated. These paintings are now recognised internationally as iconic and standalone examples of twentieth century cover art. Most of the originals are in widely dispersed private collections, but a significant number of them have been published in signed, limited edition prints and are collected worldwide.
‘Adams is a blender of acute realism and haunting fantasy . . . a painstaking craftsman with a special genius for suiting image to story. His secret as cover illustrator lies, it seems to me, above all in his capacity for being oblique, yet so presenting this obliquity that it constitutes a lure. His work belongs to one of the pleasantest traditions in English art, and goes back to the great woodcut school of the 1860s; and our own day.’ (John Fowles’ Introduction to Tom Adams’ Agatha Christie Story 1981)
Tom Adams is an American born, British artist of Scottish Canadian ancestry, educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Chelsea School of Art and Goldsmiths College, London. Adams began his art career painting pub signs, writing and illustrating articles in Eagle, Girl and Swift comics. For a time he worked as an art consultant for various companies, including his own, Adams Design Associates. Developing his skills in screen-printing and involved with several distinguished poets including Ted Hughes C. Day Lewis, Brian Patten, George MacBeth and Adrian Henri, Adams started to produce poetry prints published by his own gallery, The Fulham Gallery, London.
Adams has been commissioned by various international publishers to illustrate book covers for many best-selling authors – Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, John Fowles, Peter Straub and many others. Adams has also worked on several science-fiction films as concept artist and matte painter and developing special effects for directors including Stanley Kubrick (2001 – A Space Odyssey) Nick Roeg and Mike Hodges (Flash Gordon) and Tobe Hooper (Life Force).
His paintings are in private collections worldwide. He has exhibited in group and one man shows in London, Marbella, Toronto, Tokyo, Dublin and Sydney. His UK exhibitions include The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, The Portal, Fulham, Calvert, ICA and RBA galleries in London and Gallery Terracina, Exeter. Married to children’s author Georgie Adams, Tom lives and works in the Kensey Valley, North Cornwall where he continues to paint tirelessly.
During recent months and working on a number of commissions towards the Agatha Christie centenary celebrations in 2015, Tom painted the cover for Agatha Christie’s ‘The Greenshore Folly’, a previously unpublished, shorter version of ‘Dead Man’s Folly’ which will be launched in June this year at Greenway House.
A beautiful series of limited edition prints is on show in the Street Gallery, situated in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS), University of Exeter These prints of the Agatha Christie book cover paintings produced between 1962 and the early 1980s tell the story of a legendary cover artist, featuring some of Adams’ best work.
The exhibition is presented in association with a conference on 14th April ‘Agatha Christie: Crime, Culture, Celebrity’.
Cristina Burke-Trees, Curator Exhibition: 01392 412313 / c.burke-trees@exeter.ac.uk
Conference: Jamie Bernthal, 07449310137 / jcb228@exeter.ac.uk