realism

GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN was born in VIENNA, austria, in 1948. after his studies at the academy of art in vienna he became a masterclass student of the ‘magic realist’ RUDOLF HAUSER. helnwein’s first hyper-realistic paintings were successful very early in numerous exhibitions. the end of the seventies he created commissioned works for the mass media, what enabled him to address a broader public outside the art-world. after some years in germany helnwein moved to ireland in 1997 where he lives and works in a castle in county tipperary. he is not only well known for his paintings, he works as a photographer and stage designer for theatre, ballet and opera as well. following a few of his novel-illustrations for the german magazine STERN in the early eighties.

© gottfried helnwein / gruner + jahr

kathrinchen

these beautiful illustrations were done by HEINZ EDELMANN for the children book KATHRINCHEN GING SPAZIEREN ( LITTLE CATHERINE WENT FOR A WALK ), written by PETER HACKS and published in 1973 by MIDDELHAUVE VERLAG COLOGNE. the characters and backgrounds look like the world in the film YELLOW SUBMARINE from 1968, designed by edelmann as well.

© heinz edelmann / middelhauve publ.

eugene galien-laloue 5

© eugene galien-laloue

battle

the 1971 russian SOYUZMULTFILM production THE BATTLE OF KERZHENETS was directed by IVAN IVANOV-VANO and YURIY NORSHTEYN, set to the musik of RIMSKY-KORSAKOV. the cut-out stop motion animation was done using elements of russian religious frescoes and paintings from the fourteenth to sixteenth century. the story is based on the legend of the invisible city of KITEZH, which disappears under the waters of a lake to escape an attack by the mongols. following are some captured scenes.

© soyuzmultfilm

wilhelm m.busch 3 b

here now the second part of WILHELM M.BUSCH’S illustrations for the circus story-collection book. BUSCH apparently loved the circus, the way it was a while ago. I still remember when I was in a circus for the first time when I was ten years old, the magical unreal atmosphere, the smells, the fantasy costumes, all the different wild animals, the dangerous stunts of the acrobats and the clowns of course. the last time years later I had the same experience during my visit to CIRCUS RONCALLI in germany. these images are burned in my memory, images I will never forget – like the sad clown playing a beautiful, melancholic melody on his rusty trumpet, the old lady riding on a white horse, big masked creatures, and clown PIC and his soap-bubbles, who I had a chance to work with on a tv show in the eighties. the drawings from this master-illustrator triggered all these memories and I am sure they do the same in some of you.

© wilhelm m.busch / heyne verlag

wilhelm m.busch 3 a

the illustrations below by WILHELM M.BUSCH are from a short story compilation THE WORLD’S BEST CIRCUS STORIES ( DIE SCHOENSTEN CIRCUS GESCHICHTEN DER WELT ) edited by UTTA DANIELLA, published in 1980 by wilhelm heyne verlag, munich. these late BUSCH illustrations were always my favorites, they look so light, so easily done with the experience of a whole life. I selected a few of the more than hundred pieces in the book. part two will follow tomorrow…

© wilhelm m.busch / heyne verlag

chinese art 3

again some more artwork of two chinese artists. and again I can’t figure out their names. it is a very unusual style I have never seen anywhere else.

vital from spain informed me that the second artist is HU YONGKAI. you can find more about him here

© unknown chinese artist / hu yongkai

february mood

german illustration 5

MARTIN GUHL illustrated several of the adult novel-series in the german magazine STERN throughout the seventies. unfortunately there is no information about him, maybe someone can help me. following a few of his illustrations I collected over the years in my cut-out archives.

© martin guhl / gruner + jahr

anton pieck

in 1895 ANTON PIECK was born in a small village in the netherlands. most of his life he was a professor, teaching children how to draw. in 1987 he died at the age of 92. his paintings are very well known in holland, he is, after all, one of the founders and designers of the fairy theme park DE EFTELING, a dutch kind of disneyland. when I worked on the comic strip series ALFRED J.KWAK I was introduced to pieck’s work through one of our dutch partners. first I thought I was looking at GUSTAF TENGGREN art. but after looking closer I found out that he has his very personal style, portraying the very typical, charming dutch way of life. here is a very small selection of his artwork.

© anton pieck

pans

the longer recreated pans below are from two disney shorts and one from MGM, all beautifully painted in the traditional watercolor- technique.

FARMYARD SYMPHONY, 1938 disney silly symphony

TUGBOAT MICKEY, 1940 disney mickey mouse short

YANKEE DOODLE MOUSE, 1943 MGM tom+jerry short

© disney enterprises, inc
© MGM

wilhelm m.busch 2

WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated in the sixties the novel MANON LESCAUT written by ABBE PREVOST. following is a small selection of the masterful black/white drawings.

© wilhelm m.busch / bertelsmann publ.

zagreb style 6

the OSCAR-nominated animated short SATIEMANIA was produced in 1978 by ZDENKO GASPAROVIC for ZAGREB film. the comically violent film is based on the piano music of ERIC SATIE, it is a satirical portrait of the city-jungle with its excesses, the brothels and bars. following are some captured moments.

© zagreb film / zdenko gasparovic

maritime

MONTAGUE DAWSON is probably the best known sea painter of the twentieth century. he was born 1895 in chiswick, one of the suburbs of london. early his family moved to southampton, where dawson spent his time fishing, sailing and watching the great ships of the world anchoring in the harbor. his grandfather was HENRY DAWSON, a very successful landscape artist in his time. the grandson seemed to be destined to become a painter early on, he always knew how to draw and to use color. though he never went to art school, he took every opportunity of looking at paintings and absorbing the methods of the masters. after WW1 dawson became a professional painter and illustrator and was already in 1930 established among the leading marine painters, with increasingly important commissions, like from the royal family and the american presidential collections. dawson was extremely industrious often working seven days a week. his fame grew to such an extent that his wife and daughter spent much of their time shielding him from an admiring public. he would take upto three weeks to complete one picture and would not start a new one until the current one was finished. dawson’s controlled and quick brushwork gives life to his paintings, and the incredible attention to nautical details is stunning. as he said about his paintings - you really are there, you can hear the sea. montague dawson died in 1973, he was a master of his genre, the like of which we may never see again.

© montague dawson

german illustration 4

during the sixties and seventies I collected as many of the illustrations of DIETER LANGE as I could find. besides the children-stories he illustrated the adult series in the german magazine STERN as well. from the hundreds of cut-outs I selected a few.

© dieter lange / gruner&jahr

fight

sketches from a shelved CG-animated short I AM, I was developing in 2001 at disney together with UMESH SHUKLA. It was supposed to be about birds, a journey through abstract art of the last century.

© © disney enterprises, inc

malang

as you might know, I live now for the last seven years in manila, philippines. it is a very poor country that is struck by disasters regularly, like the major typhoons and the floodings last year, as well as the recent threat of an erupting volcano. nevertheless filippinos are very creative people, some very well known singers like LEA SALONGA are from here, one of the most famous comic strip artist ALEX NINO grew up here, and a very well known painter lives here and is still creating his beautiful art at over eighty years of age – MAURO ‘MALANG’ SANTOS was born 1928 in santa cruz, manila. he studied fine arts at the university of the philippines and at the otis art institute in L.A. 1947 he started to work as a layout artist at a daily manila newspaper, where he created the first english daily comic strip. he published over the following years several comic strip series. together with six artist friends he set up the first art gallery in manila in 1965. continous exhibitions of his paintings followed in manila and all over the philippines, as well as in london, rome, N.Y., san franzisco, hong kong and bahrain. his paintings are colorful and feature simplified forms, often portraying women in traditional dress with fruits in baskets. I love his work, it is a lot like this very colorful country with its spanish tradition mixed with the asian culture. following are some selected pieces of his art.

© malang

cut out

I am sure most of you know JAN LENICA, or at least have seen an animated film, a poster, a children book, a stamp-design or even the sets and costumes of a theatre-play he designed. JAN LENICA, 1928 – 2001, grew up in warsaw, poland. together with WALERIAN BOROWCZYK he made his first animated film in 1957, a lot more followed. he settled in paris, lectured at harvard university, was the first professor of the animation class at the university of kassel, germany, and professor for poster and graphic arts at the berlin hochschule der kuenste. he said about himself – I have always liked to move at the periphery of art, at the crossing of genres. I have enjoyed combining seemingly distant elements, if not foreign, blurring the borders between adjacent areas. despite the variety of techniques, themes and genres, lenica’s cut out style is quite easy to recognize, and there is always a personal message revolving around the dilemma of human existence. he preferred to use two-dimensional forms, the space flat, no perspective. following are some captured scenes from the 1963 film DIE NASSHOERNER – THE RHINOCEROS, or also known as RHINOCERI, based on a EUGENE IONESCO short story.

© jan lenica

wilhelm m.busch 1

WILHELM MARTIN BUSCH, 1908 -1987, is one of the most important german illustrators of the second half of the 20th century, with a total of over 300 illustrated books. his father, ARNOLD BUSCH, who taught at the breslau art academy, was one of the most famous portrait artists of his time. the father was teaching the son, who decided early on to become a drawing artist. from the very beginning almost perfect already he started to study in 1929 at the berlin academy of art. he had a chance to learn from some well known teachers, and became through working in woodcut interested in book-illustration. in the berlin of the early thirties busch became fast a wanted illustrator for newspapers like ‘gartenlaube’, and started very early to illustrate the classics of literature. during WW2 he was recruited to the ‘psychological war’ troops, dealing with propaganda prints. after the war he moved to hamburg and started to work for ROWOHLT-publishing. his first major assignment were the illustrations for TUCHOLSKY’S – SCHLOSS GRIPSHOLM. all the major writers of german, french and russian literature followed. busch illustrated EMILE ZOLA, CASANOVA’S MEMOIRS, GOETHE, HAUFF’S FAIRYTALES and more. I have about 40 of his illustrated books and – they are MASTERPIECES. already before WW2 busch had started to teach part-time, from 1954 on he became a fulltime teacher at the hamburg textile/fashion school ( later academy for design ), in 1984 he was appointed professor by the hamburg senate. he told his students – you have to SEE, use your eyes, look around yourself, the hand will do the work automatically. or he was more precise while teaching life drawing – stay 90% of the time with your eyes on the model and 10% on the paper! he was teaching until he died in 1987.

for me he is THE ILLUSTRATOR par excellence! he did not need any reference, did not use any photograph nor models. he had images, worlds in his imagination and he was able to draw them on paper in his unique style. just paper, ink and nibs. a true MASTER OF THE ARTS!
there will be a lot of posts with his amazing drawings, from all over the forties, fifties and sixties. very interesting to watch how he changed his drawing style, from pretty realistic to impulsive, the idea more important than the detail.

the illustrations are from the book IM WEITEN REVIER, published by bertelsmann in the fifties.
© wilhelm m.busch / bertelsmann

chinese art 2

again some more illustrations by two chinese master-artists. I apologize that I am not able to give you the names, unfortunately I can’t read the chinese language. maybe someone out there who recognizes the artwork can help.

according to pinoc and Zhiqi the first artist’s name is DI Shaoying and the second one is Shi Dawei. thank you very much for the information…

© DI Shaoying / Shi Dawei