Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, August 10, 2023: Vincent Di Fate, an American illustrator, painter (#1875)

Thursday, August 10, 2023

Artist of the Day, August 10, 2023: Vincent Di Fate, an American illustrator, painter (#1875)

For more than four decades, Vincent Di Fate has been regarded as one of the world’s leading artistic visionaries of the future. People Magazine said that he is “one of the top illustrators of science fiction…Di Fate is not all hard-edge and airbrush slickness. His works are always paintings – a bit of his brushwork shows – and they are all the better because of it.” And Omni Magazine observed that “…moody and powerful, the paintings of Vincent Di Fate depict mechanical marvels and far frontiers of a future technocracy built on complicated machinery and human resourcefulness. Di Fate… is something of a grand old man in the highly specialized field of technological space art. Stirring images of far-flung environments have been his trademark…” In his prolific career, he has produced art of science fiction, astronomical and aerospace subjects for such clients as IBM, The Reader’s Digest, Scientific American, The National Geographic Society, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Di Fate has received numerous awards for his work and was inducted in 2011 into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and into the Illustrators’ Hall of Fame in 2019. His accolades including the Frank R. Paul Award for Outstanding Achievement in Science Fiction Illustration (1978), the Hugo Award (Science Fiction Achievement Award) for Best Professional Artist (1979), the Skylark Award for Imaginative Fiction (1987), the Lensman Award for Lifetime Contribution to the Science Fiction Field (1990), the Chesley Award from the Association of Science Fiction/Fantasy Artists for Lifetime Artistic Achievement (1998), and the Rondo Award (2004), among many others. He was also Guest of Honor at the 50th World Science Fiction Convention in Orlando, Florida in 1992 and has been an honored guest at regional SF, fantasy and media conventions throughout the U.S. and Canada since the 1960s.

Di Fate has produced three major books, Di Fate’s Catalog of Science Fiction Hardware (Workman Publishing Co, 1980), Infinite Worlds: The Fantastic Visions of Science Fiction Art (Penguin Studio Books, 1997) and The Science Fiction Art of Vincent Di Fate (Paper Tiger, 2002), and is currently writing a four book on the subject of the role of illustration in science fiction films. The award winning Infinite Worlds was the first comprehensive history of science fiction art in America., Di Fate has also lectured extensively about the history, methods and meaning of his craft and has been a consultant for MCA/Universal, 20th Century-Fox, Walt Disney Productions and MGM/United Artists. He is a professor of Illustration at the Fashion Institute of Technology (State University of New York) in New York City, and was the co-creator of FIT’s MA and MFA in Illustration programs, a co-founder of FIT’s Film and Media program, and was formerly the Acting Chair of FIT’s MA program. He’s served as president of the Society of Illustrators (1995-1997), an organization of which he is a Life Member, chaired the Permanent Collection Committee for the Museum of America Illustration from 1985 to 1995, and has served on the Illustration Committee for the Sanford Low Collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art since 1993. He is also a founding member and past president of the Association of Science Fiction/Fantasy Artists.

Di Fate studied at the Phoenix in New York City (later incorporated into the Pratt Institute as the Pratt Manhattan Center) and holds a Master of Arts degree in Illustration from Syracuse University.

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