Ted CoConis

Constantinos "Ted" CoConis (August 31, 1927 – March 28, 2023) was an American illustrator and painter who worked on many children's books, including the 1971 Newbery Award-winning The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Cromer Byars, and The Golden God, Apollo by Doris Gates. He is the creator of well-known movie posters, book covers, and magazine and story illustrations, for which he was inducted into the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame. In 1980, he left the world of illustration to pursue a career as a fine artist.

Early life The son of Greek immigrants, CoConis's mother recognized and encouraged her son's artistic talents from an early age. He was awarded a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago while still in grade school. In 1942, with the advent of WWII and at the young age of 15, he joined the US Air Force, having altered his baptismal record to do so. After receiving an honorary discharge two years later, he enrolled in Chicago's American Academy of Arts, only to then join the U.S. Merchant Marine a year later. The US Army and Air Force both commissioned paintings that now hang in the Pentagon.

In the early 1950s, CoConis transferred to the Sixth Army in San Francisco as an illustrator and started doing freelance work. His work attracted the attention of Al Chaite who was associated with a notable commercial art studio in New York City, and CoConis accepted a full-time position with the studio. and The Golden God: Apollo by Doris Gates. He created the covers for such well-known books as Nelson Algren’s A Walk on the Wild Side (1960), Ada, or Ardor (1969) by Vladimir Nabokov, and William Goldman’s The Princess Bride (1973). CoConis also provided interior illustrations for some of James Michener's novels published in Reader's Digest condensed books, including Texas and Alaska.

During this period CoConis also provided illustrations for film posters, a number of which received Academy Awards, and record album covers for popular and classic performers and orchestras including Della Reese, Doris Day, Itzhak Perlman, Eugene Ormandy, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Some of the most celebrated/famous/iconic are those listed below. His earlier work with Jim Henson and the Muppet Show (1974), led to CoConis being asked to illustrate the movie poster for Labyrinth (1986). The image was also used on the cover of A.C.H. Smith’s novelization of the movie

Posters Petulia (1968) Finian's Rainbow (1968) The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) Dorian Gray (1970) Fiddler on the Roof (1971) Man of La Mancha (1972) Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) Breezy (1973) The Muppet Valentine Show (1974) Hair (Spanish version) (1979) Labyrinth (Original Soundtrack of the Jim Henson film) (1986) Year Long Disaster (2007)

Work as a fine artist

CoConis began working independently as a fine artist in 1980. He noted in various interviews that he felt it was time to do his own paintings and have control over his creative decisions. To quote Tudor, "The power of Women in Paris, as the evolving series of CoConis’s work has come to be known, is the same one that fueled his first illustrations: Every face, every gesture, every choice in clothing and setting tells a story. And within that story, the dignity, discovery, and depth of the human experience is laid bare."

His work has won numerous awards from the Society of Illustrators, the Art Directors’ Clubs of New York and Los Angeles, and other associations. His art is in the Museum of Illustration of the Society of Illustrators.

Throughout his life, CoConis looked to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the scholarship he received in grade school as a touchstone for inspiration: “When I was growing up in Chicago, it was a tough kind of life,” CoConis recalled. “The word ‘scholarship’, and what it represented, goes way beyond what it did at the time. It has become something I look back on to give me fortitude to keep trying.” He noted that he has been striving to learn how to draw and paint for 94 years: “but I never quite achieve what I hope to. That elusive goal always seems to remain slightly beyond my reach.”