Rodin, Picasso, Monet. These are just some of the great artists of the late 20th century, and now, Capcom is primed to join them in the annals of history. It's a nice bit of Warhol thrown in to boot, as art dealership Cook & Becker are presenting a collection of limited-edition, museum-grade art prints based on arguably the developer's most recognized games, Street Fighter.
"This has really been a passion project for us as many of us here are huge fans of the series", says Maarten Brands of Cook & Becker. "It is not often that you get to work with material covering so many years and it was a real challenge to narrow down so much great artwork to a manageable collection, but we're very proud and happy with the results and hope fans and collectors are as enthusiastic."
As detailed by a press release, the selection encompasses designs and promotional art from over 25 years of Street Fighter history with works from some of the most important artists that have contributed to the series such as Akiman, CRMK, Kinu Nishimura, Ikeno, Dai-Chan, Edayan, and Shoei.
"Renowned for its deep and balanced gameplay and bold art style, the Street Fighter series has been enjoyed by gamers across the globe, amassing sales of over 35 million units. For many they embody one of the purest forms of the games medium and for a generation of gamers the art and characters have become iconic."
Included drawings and images are from some of the most influential artists from the fighting franchise's history, whose designs have helped shape the series. All the prints are hand-numbered museum-grade Certified Art Giclees and come with a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Street Fighter's Executive Producer Yoshinori Ono.
This will be the first time that fans of the series will be able to own museum-grade quality art prints and collections of original game and concept art. It's a two part collection. This first portion focuses mostly on the core games between Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. A further second set of prints will be introduced later in 2014 with a focus on Street Fighter IV.
The first line of prints are already available for reservations and pre-orders, so head over to Cook & Becker if you're interested. They're not exactly cheap, but not crazy expensive either. You can take a peek at some of them below.
