Thematic Shows
Western European Fairy Tales by Russian Illustrators
This exhibition seeks to illustrate a few prominent Soviet
book illustrators’ interpretation of Western European fairy tales in the
Gamborg Gallery collection.
Soviet-born Russian illustrators’ graphic
interpretation of European fairy tales tend to be more baroque than many
traditional Western European illustrators’ interpretations, which is possibly
due to the grandeur of Russian Tsars’ court and the cult of aesthetics inherent
to the Russian culture as a whole from time immemorial.
It is this fairy-tale atmosphere what French choreographer Marius Petipa rescues when staging the three
grand Tchaikovsky’s ballets - The Sleeping Beauty, the Nutcracker and Swan
Lake. Thus, performing arts such as theater and ballet are all-present in
Soviet time illustrations of European fairy tales conferring them a depth and a
complexity which at times make these illustrations as appealing to adults as to
children who get acquainted with these stories for the first time.
The most prominent artist featured in this exhibition is Nika
Golts (born 1927) who has been all her life working as a fairy tale
illustrator. Nika’s art is wise, serious, and at the same time full of little
tricks and jokes only visible to the observant reader. Her colour palette is
mostly pastel and delicate and she avoids bold colour contrasts. The artist
uses frequently lace and textile-like textures to evoke an ambience of mystery
and remoteness (see her illustrations to Perrault’s The Sleeping Beauty or
Andersen’s The Swineherd). Nika Golts strikes a deal with the author where,
while following the story closely, she would allow herself to interpret the
characters through her own aesthetics. Nika Golts is a precise magician of
colour and line. The careful rendering of architectural elements and a
classical composition are permanent features of her drawings for Hans Christian
Andersen, Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm and Oscar Wilde tales. In recent
illustrations, Nika often uses brown and grey paper as the foundation for her works
which adds a special smoothness to the scenes while conferring an old time
magic to the graphic world of the tale. Her outstanding illustrations for H.C.
Andersen’s fairy tales made her a nominee for the prestigious Hans Christian
Andersen award granted to illustrators by the Danish Ministry of Culture on
occasion of the 200th Anniversary of the world famous Danish
storyteller’s birth in 2005.
Galina Dmitrieva (born 1929) graduated from the Surikov
Institute in Moscow as a poster artist, but she followed her natural interest
for the world of theatre, myths, and fairy tales and became a full-time
children books illustrator. She made illustrations for over a hundred books.
This exhibition includes her illustrations to compilations of Italian and
French fairy tales, Cinderella, the Puss-In-Boots and Hoffmann’s fairy tales. Also
included is a series of illustrations to the Nutcracker and the Mouse King
where we can see the best of Galina Dmitrieva’s technique, her unparallel
fantasy and her bold use of colour and contrast. Her beloved techniques were
gouache and watercolour, but she also excelled in lithography. Dmitrieva used
the Russian lubok as a permanent
source of inspiration for her art which is noticeable in the outer contour line
she includes in illustrations and in the theatre-like, plumy, rounded nature of
the characters. The area of her pictures is most often fully covered with
colour and the human figure is ever present, even when in the shape of dolls
inhabiting the illustrated stories’ scenes.
Galina Shubina (1902-1980), Russian avant-garde graphic
artist who later specialised in posters, experimented as well with the world of
European fairy tale during her early period. She made a few outstanding
drawings of Pinocchio, the Italian fairy tale by Carlo Collodi we have included
in this exhibition.
Marina Uspenskaya (1927-2007) was particularly well-known for
her illustrations for classic Russian fairy tales, such as “Ruslan and
Lyudmila”, “The Silver Hoof” and “Snegurochka”. In spite of this, she did make
a wonderful interpretation of Andersen’s fairy tales (“The Emperor’s New Suit”,
"The Princess and the Pea", “Thumbelina” and others) in 1954 and thus
we are including a series of her drawings for this compilation.