Saturday, January 29, 2011

Avant-Garde in the Nursery



Polish avant-garde artist Franciszka Themerson (1907-1988) illustrated the delightful 
My First Nursery Book in 1947. Franciszka was a woman of many talentswhose 
endeavours included painting, illustration, graphic design, stage design, 
art direction, publishing, film-making and marionette theatre. 
In many of these projects she was accompanied by her husband, the writer, 
composer and film-maker Stefan Themerson, whom she married in 1931.
Visit the Themerson Archive to appreciate the many collaborative
efforts of this wonderfully creative couple.





My First Nursery Book includes four classic tales: Who Killed Cock Robin?
The Gingerbread Man, Three Little Pigs and The Three Bears.
It was republished by Tate in 2009.











The cover and endpapers scans come from a guest post on Curious Pages,
in which illustrator Carson Ellis presented some of the spreads from the book. 


5 comments:

  1. They are wild, really love the limited pallet and the way it was used so creatively.

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  2. I really like your blog a lot, where do you find all these wonderful illustrations...

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  3. Thanks, I am glad you like them!
    SEE, from many different sources, on and off the web, there's a lot of good material if you look for it...

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  4. Oh! I grew up on Franciszka's illustration in "Tańcowała igła z nitką" (Needle and Thread Dancing) for Jan Brzechwa rhymes. Take a look at these pictures at one of polish blogs: http://pstrobazar.blogspot.com/2011/04/evergreen-tancowaa-iga-z-nitka.html

    Thank you for your blog! I am a true fan! :)

    ReplyDelete

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