Illustrators # 20 (magazine review).

This issue of ‘Illustrators’ is devoted to Russian artists. As such, we see the work from their homeland which makes an interesting contrast to other material we’ve seen in the past.

The opening section is devoted to a group of artists called ‘The Wanderers’ or Iterants who in the mid-19^th century, instead of relying on the patronage of the wealthy and church, decided to tour, paint and show their own exhibitions. It’s interesting seeing their wealth of colour and crowd scenes and, surprising for me, two fantasy scenes. You would have thought with the bleak weather Russia gets that fantasy elements would have developed more. Nevertheless, the samples shown here of their assorted work shows a neglected region of art I haven’t seen before.

There is also an examination of the art of Franz Roubaud (1856-1928), born in Russia but also lived in France and Germany. Renowned for drawing panoramas, the biggest denominator here is his painting horsemen. Really an eye-opener when he catches them in motion.

The final offering, Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942) is definitely more in the fantasy class. Born in Russia, he flees as a refugee to Egypt with the revolution. His work is very much in a woodcut style which oddly looks more dimensional than the technique would suggest but that might be because of the colour. He also trained a lot of students and it would have been interesting to have seen how much of an influence his style had on their work.

A rather off-beat ‘Illustrators’ this time around but nevertheless full of surprises and I’d rather that than them get into a rut.

GF Willmetts

November 2017

(pub: The Book Palace, 2017. 98 page illustrated squarebound magazine. Price: £18.00 (UK), $21.99 (US). ISBN: 978-1-907081-42-2. ISSN: 2052-6520)

check out websites: www.thebookpalace.com