Carl Lundgren (illustrator)


Carl Lundgren is an American artist and illustrator, primarily known for his 1960s-era rock posters and fantasy art.

Career

Lundgren had an early interest in becoming a fantasy artist and illustrator like Frank Frazetta, his idol. At the age of 18, he was co-chairman of the first multimedia science fiction convention, The Detroit Triple Fan Fair, featuring comics, movies and science fiction. He studied with the Famous Artists School correspondence course, for formal training.
In 1967 Lundgren met rock poster artist Gary Grimshaw, who was illustrating posters for a Detroit rock venue, run by Russ Gibb, called the Grande Ballroom. Grimshaw offered him a job, and Lundgren went on to create poster art for seminal bands such as The Who, Jefferson Airplane and Pink Floyd.
In 1974 Lundgren moved to New York City and turned to science fiction and fantasy illustration for a living, painting nearly 300 book covers. During this time, Lundgren became a co-founder of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists and was nominated for a Hugo Award for his illustration work.
Lundgren quit working for the publishing industry in 1987, choosing to instead to focus on fine art. In 1993 he wrote and published an autobiography called Carl Lundgren, great artist.
In 2015 Hermes Press published a book by Lundgren on his posters titled The Psychedelic Rock Art of Carl Lundgren.