Monday 9 February 2015

Grée days

'Killing time'. It's a strange concept really, isn't it? - when every second, minute and hour dies of its own accord without our help. Usually it flies, and we take great pains to save it. But anyway, in spite of being a life-long pacifist, I was fortunate to find myself in the fairly unusual position of having a little time to kill the other day. I chose a popular weapon – an internet connection. The minutes soon expired as I searched for something and then happily lost myself in it; I was looking for the work of an illustrator I hadn't thought about in a while and whose name I'd forgotten. All I could recall was that he was French, or was it Belgian? and that his children's book illustrations were popular in the '60s and '70s. It didn't take long for me to find him – Alain Grée. (He is French.)

For me, Alain Grée's illustrations provide a perfect tonic at this time of year. Winter's dragging on and we've hit that point when it's just thoroughly boring now and the hopeful journey towards Spring seems to be taking forever.  Art always gives me a boost. This kind of art may look 'simple' but the ability to pare back so effectively takes a huge amount of skill; the bold colours and shapes are just right and with no need for outlines or overly fussy detail. Distilling the complexities of reality into blocks of colour and naïve form whilst retaining real interest and character is something I'm forever trying to master.  And his compositions are so aesthetically pleasing - gorgeous examples of the graphic style of their era which work for me on a nostalgic level as well as an artistic one.









A number of Alain Grée's educational children's books with their original '60s and '70s illustrations have been reprinted in recent years and their popularity continues. 

I could happily kill time with him any day.


12 comments:

  1. Enchanting. And, of course, very French.

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  2. I love to find unfamiliar children's book illustrators, C. Thanks! Have you ever seen the work of Lisbeth Zwerger? On the historical side, Arthur Rackham has been my favourite for years.

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    1. I hadn't knowingly seen the work of Lisbeth Zwerger but now I've just looked her up and seen her Alice In Wonderland illustrations. Superb! Thanks. I'm a fan of Rackham too - and also on the historical side, Edmund Dulac.

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  3. I don't think I've ever come across his books but these illustrations are fabulous. When I look at them, I hear some jaunty Swingle Singers or Jacques Loussier in my head, if that makes sense. Nostalgic and beatific. The picture the birds in the moonlit tree is particularly wonderful.

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    1. Glad you like them. Sounds like you have the perfect soundtrack in your head too (I didn't know Jacques Loussier before now, but you're right!)

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  4. A slice of my childhood in a blogpost. Lovely stuff
    Swiss Adam

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    1. Oh, that's great. I find his pictures really evocative of my childhood summers, it's all ice lollies and skipping ropes.

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  5. If the little corner of the internet where we all hang out ever needed to create its own membership card or logo, we could do worse than use the lovely illustration of the kids playing records. We'd have to change the Mozart and Bach sleeves to Suede and Bob Dylan though, obviously! These are all delightful and, yes, nostalgic. Thank you for introducing me to Mr Grée's work.

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    1. Love the membership card idea, brilliant! It'd only take a little bit of tweaking...
      Glad you like his work too.

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  6. The picture of the guy at the control panel was one of my favorite books but I can't remember what it was called?? I'd love to get my hands on a copy

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    1. Hi Anon. I'm not sure - I think it might be from 'I Know About Travel'. I bought some of his recently re-issued books but that doesn't seem to be one of them. Maybe you'll find an original if you search around, though?

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