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Author
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Comment
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Charles Vess
Unregistered User
(8/28/02 8:38:07 am)
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Fairy Tales in Russia
I just opened another treasure from my San Diego horde and it is breathtaking to say the least!!!
The book is actually an exhibition catalog for a museum exhibition in Russia and is over 400 pages long,in full color. Image after image after image of fairy tales both familiar and (most excitingly) unfamiliar. Some artists I knew (such as Ivan Bilibin) but many, many others I had never seen the work of before.
The catalog is broken down into sections on: folktales, fairy tale literature, Bylinas, fables, illustrated books (this section includes the covers to hundreds of tantalizing children's books), theatrical set designs, artists fantasies, etc.
Short text versions of many of the folk and fairy tales are also included.
The profusion of illustrations range from paintings to drawings to sculpture (most of which made me want own the actual object) to chromo lithographes. The painting styles range from ultra realistic to quite simple, almost "naive" styled drawings and designs.
The entire production is absolutely splendid and makes me wish that there was some way to have seen the actual exhibition. But this book is a rare beauty, opening as it does such a wide door into an almost alien and little seen culture.
The book is available through Bud Plant Comic Art but it is rather expensive ($85.00). Maybe you could talk your various local libraries into ordering a copy.
Seeing all that art just makes me too excited to sit typing any longer I need to get to my drawing board...
Best,
Charles
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(8/28/02 8:56:05 am)
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Re: Fairy Tales in Russia
Looks wonderful, Charles. Thanks for the tip. I would love to see some high quality reproductions of Bilibin's work since most books I have found cheaply reproduce him in black and white or low resolution.
And here are links to the book on Amazon and Bud Plant:
Amazon:
www.amazon.com/exec/obido...lalufairyt
Bud Plant Comic:
www.budplant.com/prod.itml/icOid/9933
Heidi
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Charles Vess
Unregistered User
(8/28/02 10:31:36 am)
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Bilibin book
Heidi,
There is a very nice art book on Bilibin called quite simply, IVAN BILIBIN pub. by Abrams in 1981 that is still pretty easy to pick up on the secondary market. It's a little over 200 pages with LOTS of nicely reproduced color art and an extensive biography of the artist. But the best reproductions of his work is in the Russian reprints of the individual fairy tales (VASSILISA THE BEAUTIFUL, THE FROG PRINCESS, MARYA MOREVNA, etc.) from 1976. Those are hard to find and fairly expensive at that.
Charles
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Lotti
Unregistered User
(8/28/02 10:52:13 am)
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More Russian Illustrations
Hello Charles,
I stumbled across the two following links on Russian fairy tales and Illustrations a short while ago (not saying I like them all, but a fair portion):
www.dartmouth.edu/~russia...index.html
www.lacquerbox.com/tales.htm
Thought I'd share!
Best wishes
Charlotte
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tlchang37
Registered User
(8/29/02 1:09:38 pm)
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Re: Bilibin book
Is that 'Vasilla the Beautiful' the one from 1976 published in paperback, about 9"x12" (the author and illustrator are listed in Russian - though the tale is in English)? I picked it up about 8 years ago at a thrift store for 29 cents on account of a tear in the lower cover. It is incredibly beautiful, and I love the ink colors - it looks like the old 1920s and 30's Primers I collect with the vivid (albeit toxic, apparently) vermillions and celadons.
This version was also reprinted in one of the Time Life - Enchanted World series, although it suffers from lack of the amazing ink colors.
I'm glad to know the name of the illustrator. I love his work. Thanks Charles!
Tara
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Charles Vess
Unregistered User
(8/29/02 2:19:11 pm)
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More on Bilibin...
Tara,
Yes, that's one of seven books in that series of Russian fairy tales that are all illustrated by the artist Bilibin. Curiously enough when I read through the art book on him I learned that all of those books are in his earlier, more naturalistic style. His later work becomes increasingly more stylized and iconographic a stylistic manner that I didn't like at all in my younger days but now truely enjoy.
Hope you find the other six books at similiar prices someday. But I believe that VASILLA THE BEAUTIFUL is the best book in that younger style. Image after stunning image. I love his rendention of Baba Yaga!!
Charles
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Marks
Unregistered User
(9/5/02 5:15:53 pm)
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Bilibin
I have that Bilibin book Charles mentioned, which I was lucky enough to stumble across in a second hand bookstore years ago, and it is an amazing book! He was extrordinary to say the least.
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