Eoin Ó Súilleabháin posted a whole plethora of photos from a bizarre booklet – ‘Survival in a Nuclear War’ by the Irish Civil Defence . The illustrations are something to behold. Take a look here.
Who would have thunk it – James Joyce wrote a children’s picture book The Cat and the Devil. The Blachon edition has been recently republished and available again here, but I think the Richard Erdoes one looks worth tracking down as well. Read more here. Analogies to Celtic Tiger infrastructure building I’ll leave to your imagination…
Given that we have few enough design or folk art landmarks in Ireland it seems a shame that the iconic Ballyvaughan signpost in the Burren was removed recently by Clare County Council over National Road Authority issues of national signage policy. This is despite it being used in years of tourism imagery by Bord Fáilte and other agencies. As Finan O’Toole recently wrote: The signs didn’t just point to particular places, however. They also indicated a certain kind of place, an Ireland that is a little bit different, a little bit more richly textured, where place itself is a multi-layered concept. If you’d like to see the signs reinstated lend your support to this facebook page.
On May 12th, 7:30pm – 9pm, the National Print Museum will host a talk The Fantastic, the Frivolous and the Factual; Irish Artists and Illustration c.1830 – 1930 by Dr Angela Griffith, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Trinity College Dublin.
In the nineteenth century, publishing was distinguished by a remarkable growth in book and periodical illustration. This phenomenon was facilitated by developments in technology and consumer demand across all classes. Many young artists in search of a regular income and a professional reputation turned to the medium of illustration and by 1900, many leading figures of the British art world had worked as illustrators, including a significant number of Irish born artists. This lecture will examine the contribution of figures such as Daniel Maclise, F. S. Walker, Jack B. Yeats, Harry Clarke, Robert Gibbings, Norah McGuiness and Elizabeth Rivers to popular illustration and the creation of artist’s books.
In The Ould Ago is a fascinating new book of Illustrated Irish Folklore book by the late Johnny McKeagney. For forty years Johnny collected folklore by pen and tape recorder. You can see a Nationwide short video on his work here.
This fascinating blog about all things Disney has a a great post about the estimated 1200 insignia that The Walt Disney Studio created over the course of World War II.
Darn, too late. And just what we needed this winter. Over the years, Edward Gorey collected twenty-one fur coats, which he was notorious for wearing with Converse sneakers, often to the New York City Ballet. The Paris Review reports on the recent auction of his collection.
Steven Heller, who is appearing at Offset 2010 on Saturday in Dublin, narrates this excellent NYTimes film on the history of the NYTimes Op-Ed page which celebrates its 40th year. Featuring the work of Paul Sahre, Maira Kalman, Brad Holland and many others. The Irish Times, which has wallowed in stock imagery for years now, take note.
Recent renovations at London’s Notting Hill gate tube station have uncovered many illustrated mid century posters still in situ, including works by Daphne Padden. Check out the discoveries on flickr here.
Curators of all things weird and Soviet bloc at English Russia have a collection of wonderful illustrations from the 1976 edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, by Mikhail Belomlinsky.
