News and Reviews

A round-up of interesting new and forthcoming exhibitions for all tastes, along with reviews of some fascinating new books.

An Extra Review

The Editor reviews an outstanding book – Oddney’s  Otherland, by Sarah and Rodney Matthews.

John Norris Wood

John Norris Wood was a highly talented natural history illustrator, herpetologist and art tutor. John’s work was informed by a detailed knowledge of his subjects and his images always show a profound understanding of what makes an animal tick. His characterizations were based on close observation – and was especially concerned with creatures in his private collection of reptiles and amphibians. Mick Manning explores the life and art of his friend.

The Illustrator’s Interview

Adam Beer is a highly successful and inventive illustrator, mainly of books for children. His wacky and amusing creations include Mammoth, Moggie McFlea and Solo the dog. Adam talks engagingly about his first job on Teletubbies, the work, how he approaches a commission and the challenges and rewards of being an illustrator.

Walter Trier

The comedic art of Walter Trier embraces all sorts of characters, from donkeys and elephants to Baron Munchausen. Trier had a sharp eye for ludicrous situations as well – feeding the childhood imagination while also appealing to adults. Carrying on from an earlier essay in Illustration, Warren Clements examines the artist-biography of this droll practitioner.

Posters for the films of Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock’s films had a huge impact in their own time, and at least some of their appeal was generated by the posters that accompanied each new release. The Editor takes a look at posters for some iconic films – The Birds, Psycho, Vertigo– and considers their role as commercial promotions and as artistic works in their own right.

Charles Keeping

Dickens’s fictions were thoroughly illustrated by Cruikshank and Phiz in his own lifetime and their work was a hard act to follow. However, Charles Keeping provided an entirely novel approach to the Great Boz in his illustrations for the Folio Society. Jim O’Brien traces the artist’s Dickensian designs, the work of one Londoner to match another’s.

The Keeping Gallery

In gathering material for his essay (above) Jim O’Brien worked with the Keeping Gallery, and the Gallery is well-worth a visit. It is introduced in this short account.

Henry Holiday and The Hunting of the Snark

Henry Holiday may have incorporated allusions to other, and rather surprising, artworks in this illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s weird story. Hot on the trail, Goetz Kluge detects a range of references and throws significant new light on our understanding of Holiday’s responses to Carroll’s text.

Félicien Rops

Is not as well known as we might expect, though he was famous and celebrated in his own time. Brian McAvera uncovers the life and work of an artist who has often been dismissed as a pornographer – but had much more to offer. Drawing on his own collection, Brian analyses an artist whose work varied between social realism and satire.

E. T. Reed

Reed is another little remembered artist, but in his own time was celebrated for his absurdist cartoons in Prehistoric Peepsand for his extensive comedic drawings in Punchand other magazines. Reed’s considerable achievement as a satirist and commentator on the late Victorian and Edwardian periods is considered in detail by Mark Bryant.

Resources

Look and Learn

The latest exhibitions along with details of important resources to facilitate study of illustration and graphic art.