Sir Quentin Blake. the famous illustrator of 18 Roald Dahl books will showcase his work at Aberdeen Art Gallery.
There will be two exhibitions of the 90-year-old’s work on display at Quentin Blake: Illustrating Verse and Quentin Blake: Book Covers.
Both exhibitions will be open to the public from Saturday, July 8 to September, 17.
During his career, Blake has illustrated over 500 books, and in 2002 he won the international Hans Christian Andersen Award which is the highest recognition available to creators of children’s books.
Despite being too old to travel, the world-renowned illustrator is still working from his home in London.
Now he is bringing his magic touch to the north-east.
His exhibitions will be complemented with a family fun Doric take on the exhibition where performer Scriever Shane Strachan reads Scots versions of Roald Dah’s Fantastic Mr Fox and Revolting Rhymes.
Aberdeen Art Gallery resident illustrator Megan Smith will also be on hand to sketch portraits of visitors in the style of their favourite imagined children’s book.
What will Sir Quentin Blake display at Aberdeen Art Gallery?
Illustrating Verse is the first-ever exhibition dedicated to Blake’s illustrations of poetry which he has done throughout his 60-year career.
Many of his own books feature rhymes and songs, and he has collaborated with writers including Michael Rosen and Roald Dahl.
As well as artwork for popular nursery rhymes and classic stories, it will feature unseen works from Blake’s archive, such as surreal illustrations for Sylvia Plath’s The Bed Book and mischievous cats for T. S. Elliot’s The Song of Jellicles.
Sketchbooks and rough drawings give a rare insight into Blake’s writing and book design process as well as the creation of characters for Roald Dahl’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and his own Mr Magnolia.
Aberdeen City Council archives, gallery and museums service manager Helen Fothergill said it is “really exciting” to be welcoming the exhibitions.
“Quentin Blake designs his pictures around the text and interprets the author’s works”, she said.
“The whole point is to have the artwork illustrations tell the story as much as the writing.
“He still has his scratchy pen style throughout, but you can still see his humour really develop.”
Quentin Blake to show book covers from 1960’s to present day
The second exhibition, Book Covers, features 60 of Blake’s book covers from the 1960s to the present day.
It will go from mid-century Penguin paperbacks to finely crafted special editions and family-friendly poetry books.
First editions will be shown alongside reproductions of original artwork from Blake’s archive that show how he combines typography, dynamic layout and his unique way of drawing to create playful designs.
Councillor Martin Greig, Aberdeen City Council’s culture spokesman said: “We are delighted to be able to display this amazing selection of Quentin Blake’s work.
“Visitors of all ages will get much pleasure from seeing these splendid original works from the artist’s studio, many on show for the very first time.”
The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration which is touring the exhibitions said: “We are thrilled that it will be A Quentin Blake Summer at Aberdeen Art Gallery, with not one, but two of our touring exhibitions opening this July.
“We work closely with our founder Quentin to create exhibitions that offer visitors a unique look into his incredible practice through rough drawings, sketchbooks, first editions and reproductions of original artwork from his archives.”
Adult tickets cost £5 and children under 16 enter for free.
