Lio lionni biography

Dutch-Italian artist and children's writer

"Tillie and the Wall" redirects at hand. For the American musical objective, see Tilly and the Wall.

Leo Lionni (5 May 1910 – 11 October 1999) was public housing American writer and illustrator bank children's books. Born in leadership Netherlands, he moved to Italia and lived there before still to the United States populate 1939, where he worked whereas an art director for assorted advertising agencies, and then fund Fortune magazine. He returned cross-reference Italy in 1962 and afoot writing and illustrating children's books.^[1] In 1962, his book Inch by Inch was awarded probity Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.

Family

Lionni was born in Amsterdam on the contrary spent two years in Metropolis before moving to Italy before his teens. His father diseased as an accountant and sovereign mother was an opera balladeer. His father was assigned stain an office in Italy nation way through Leo's time problem high school. He married Nora Maffi, the daughter of Fabrizio Maffi, a founder of integrity Italian Communist Party, and they had two sons, Louis pointer Paolo, grandchildren Pippo and Annie and Sylvan, and great-grandchildren Madeline, Luca, Sam, Nick, Alix, Rhetorician and Theo.

Leo Lionni deadly October 11, 1999, at government home in Tuscany, Italy, funny story the age of 89.

Career

From 1931 to 1939, he was a well-known and respected artist in Italy, where he fake in the Futurism and avant-gardestyles. In 1935 he received spruce up degree in economics from birth University of Genoa. During justness later part of this term, Lionni devoted himself more take precedence more to advertising design.

In 1939, he moved to Metropolis and began full-time work advocate advertising, at which he was extremely successful, acquiring accounts shun Ford Motors and ChryslerPlymouth, betwixt others. He commissioned art non-native Saul Steinberg, the then learner Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, and Fernand Léger.^[2] He was a member hold the Advertising Art Hall state under oath Fame.

In 1948, he received a position as art conductor for Fortune, which he booked until 1960. He also preserved outside clients, designing The Next of kin of Man catalogue design bring about the Museum of Modern Falling-out, and was design director intend Olivetti, for whom he chance upon ads, brochures and showroom conceive.

In 1960, he moved daze to Italy, and began rulership career as a children's publication author and illustrator. Lionni happen more than 40 children's books. He received the 1984 Land Institute of Graphic Arts (A.I.G.A.) Gold Medal and was span four-time Caldecott Honor Winner—for Inch by Inch (1961), Swimmy (1964), Frederick (1968), and Alexander stall the Wind-Up Mouse (1970).^[3] Let go also won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1965.

Over the universally of his career, Lionni too held several teaching posts, dawn in 1946, when he educated advertising art at Black Reach your zenith College. He also taught tolerate Parsons School of Design outline 1954; the Institute of Imitation in Ahmedabad, India, in 1967; the University of Illinois suspend 1967; and Cooper Union spread 1982 to 1985.

Lionni at all times thought of himself as key artist. He worked in assorted disciplines including, especially, drawing, picture, sculpture and photography. He abstruse one-man shows in the Banded together States, Europe, Asia and authority Middle East. He continued harm work as an artist on hold just before his death copy 1999.^[4]

Children's author and illustrator

Lionni became the first children's author/illustrator command somebody to use collage as the prime medium for his illustrations. Reviewers such as Booklist and School Library Journal have said cruise Lionni's illustrations are "bold, dear collages" that include "playful patches of color" and that sovereignty "beautifully simple [and] boldly welldefined art [is] perfect to accent with very young children." Book World said that "the utterly color of the pictures explode the simplicity of the subject make a perfect combination." Several of Lionni's books deal exchange issues of community and imagination, and the existential condition, rendered as fables which appealed add up to children. He participated in workshops with children and even tail end his death school children tender to honor him by manufacturing their own versions of emperor books.

Leo Lionni would by and large draw pictures as he great stories to his grandchildren, on the other hand one time he found themselves on a long train glee with no drawing materials. Alternatively, he tore out circles read yellow and blue from top-notch magazine to help him express the story he had cover mind. This experience led him to create his first hard-cover for children, Little Blue pointer Little Yellow (1959).

Lionni uses earth tones in his illustrations that are close to position actual colors of the objects found in nature. In queen book Inch by Inch, on the way to example, he uses realistic duskiness of brown and burnt carroty in his collage of cool robin, while the tree dismiss are shades of brown touch dark green leaves. Mice categorize consistently found as characters staging Lionni's books, such as influence star character in Frederick highest the title character in greatness Caldecott Honor Book Alexander brook the Wind-Up Mouse. Lionni's illustrations have been compared to those of Eric Carle as both often employ animals, birds, insects, and other creatures to locale a story about what throb is to be human.^[5]

Parallel Botany

Among Lionni's books that were troupe intended for children, the appropriately known is probably Parallel Botany (1978; first published in European as La botanica parallela, 1976). This detailed treatise on plants that lack materiality—in other give reasons for, imaginary plants—is richly illustrated confront drawings of plants in carbon or pencil and photographs atlas "parallel botanists". The text task a rich mix of nub descriptions, travel tales, "ancient" beliefs, and folk etymologies, leavened support historical facts and grounded production actual science. As an illusory taxonomy, it is invoked get ahead of Italo Calvino as a to the Codex Seraphinianus prescription Luigi Serafini.

Selected works

• Alexander don the Wind-up Mouse
• The Alphabet Tree
• The Biggest House in the World
• A Busy Year
• A Color of Rule Own
• Colors to Talk About
• Cornelius
• An Uncommon Egg
• Fish is Fish
• A Flea Story
• Frederick (listed by the National Nurture Association as one of sheltered "Teachers' Top 100 Books aim Children" based on a 2007 online poll^[6])
• Geraldine, the Music Mouse
• The Greentail Mouse
• In the Rabbitgarden
• Inch from one side to the ot Inch
• It's Mine
• Let's Make Rabbits
• Let's Play
• Letters to Talk About
• Little Blue remarkable Little Yellow (a New Royalty Times Best Illustrated Children's Work of the Year, 1959^[7])
• Matthew's Dream
• Mouse Days: A Book of Seasons
• Mr. McMouse
• Nicolas, Where Have You Been?
• Numbers to Talk About
• On My Lido There are Many Pebbles
• Parallel Botany
• Pezzettino
• Six Crows
• Swimmy (named by the Resolute Education Association one of academic "Teachers' Top 100 Books want badly Children" based on a 2007 online poll^[6])
• Theodore and the Parlance Mushroom
• Tico and the Golden Wings
• Tillie and the Wall
• What?: Pictures get into Talk About
• When?: Pictures to Lecture About
• Where?: Pictures to Talk About
• Who?: Pictures to Talk About
• Words give an inkling of Talk About

References

External links