Quentin and the Russians at the House of Illustration.

I don’t get to the House of Illustration as often as I used to.  I used to work just round the corner but I managed to get along last weekend.

It is cheap and very good value.  They have a changing exhibition but now they have added to this a room with a permanent exhibition of the work of Quentin Blake.

Quentin Blake’s illustrations resounded through my childhood, mainly illustrating the works of Roald Dahl.  He continues to work so there will be a number of generations for whom he is an important backdrop. 

The exhibition is a small room, the theme currently is illustrations on the theme of magic and it takes you from the 60s to the present day, taking in Roald Dahl on the way (The Witches, an excellent book).  He has a very consistent and recognisable style, which is what you want in a good illustrator.  It is also deceptively simple.

 Have a look next time you see them,  it is simple line drawings filled in with vivid colour, presumably gouache from the intensity but it may be watercolour. The bare paper is used nicely in contrast with grey washes to produce areas of light.

It is interesting though how simple lines, and a slight variations in those lines can imbue such character into figures and their surroundings.  Try copying one for yourself sometime and you will see for yourself.  

The temporary exhibition is at the moment Russian illustrations.  Hats off to the curator on this one.  They have given you the title, artist and medium but in most cases no other information.  If you don’t speak Russian or read the Cyrillic alphabet then this leaves you to try and work out what is going on just from the illustrations.  Those you can, are of course the better ones.

The first room contains children’s illustrations including some very chilling pictures of dolls with overly large heads.  Reminded me of the baby in Spirited Away.  As I went round the exhibition a number of themes struck me.  There was of course a great deal for the communist era and the worker v parasite.

Pride of place was an illustrated version of the 5 year plan with icons of factories and tractors scouring over fields.  The general feel of the style was much more modernist and cubist than I was expecting.  Indeed there was one particular piece which should the struggle of the communist worker by the battle between two coloured shapes. 

I was also interested how many of the illustrations where reminiscent of African art (such as Bab Yaga) and also Chinese art.  The latter is perhaps to be expected given the geographical proximity but it would be interesting to know if the former was conscious adopting of the style, or merely coincidence.

There were also some Yiddish illustrations which seemed to show a strong Indian and Japanese influence.  Again it would be interesting to know if this was coincidence or not.                           

The one that stuck in my mind was called the unknown hero, which was all about a miner working in the mines. Well done then to the curators at the House of Illustration for putting on another good show.  Also now the building works in the area have progressed the landscaping outside the gallery is complete and it now has fine aspect leading down to the canal.  If you haven't been, go.