Leo Lionni - Scuderie del Quirinale

dossier
Leo Lionni
...............................
“One day, it was some time in the early 70s, I was modelling some wax to make
a big imaginary plant. I was in the Bovicini foundry, near Verona, and not far from me,
the sculptor Quinto Ghermandi was working. All of a sudden Quinto put down his tools,
peered at me over the top of his glasses and said:“You always need to tell a story”.
I knew immediately that he was right […] this impulse to tell a story is at the heart
of all my work.”
Leo Lionni
• Instructions on how to use the dossier
• I am Leo Lionni
• Work files
Leo’s life and “Matthew’s dream”
Calder and Lionni and “Alexander and the Wind-up mouse”
for the fiftieth anniversary of “Little Blue and Little Yellow”
Leo’s world and “On my beach there are many pebbles”
• Suggested reading by the Scaffale d’arte
for aduls, for children, web-sites
Leo Lionni / © 1995-2008 Random House, Inc.
1
Guidelines for use
of the dossier
The dossier is designed for all
those who are curious to know
and experiment. It is an instrument
to use at school or at home
to explore the figure and the work
of Leo Lionni. It offers discussion
points and activities with work
files that, through some of his
most famous books, present
the poetics of the artist.
instructions for use
a resource for teachers, parents and museum workers
For the occasion of Alexander Calder’s exhibition the Laboratorio and Scaffale d’arte
of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni celebrate the 50th birthday of Little blue and little
yellow by Leo Lionni, a book which was greatly influenced by the work of the
American artist which he met in New York, becoming his friend as well. “Little blue
and little yellow, the first abstract book in the history of children’s publishing,
whose roots can be traced back to Japanese graphics, to the recreational activities
of the Dadaists, to the research into form and colour carried out by artists such as
Klee and Kandinskij, to the lightness of Calder’s mobiles.”1 This dossier retraces
the events of the post-war artistic community, between Europe and America,
where Lionni featured as an actor and animator.
Educational objectives
• to stimulate the use of the five senses to interpret a work of art and the reality
which surrounds us
• to learn to recognize and describe perceptions and emotions
• to perceive the links and synergies among the different artistic forms
• learn to identify the features of an illustrated book
• To look at figures by developing our owns perceptive capacities
• To recognize that a book, as well as being a work of art,
is a means for developing critical thinking.
Leo Lionni, from Little blue and little yellow, 1959
Alexander Calder, Big Red, 1959,Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York / Jerry L.Thompson, © 2009
Calder Foundation, New York by SIAE 2009
2
His life
1910 Leo is born on the 5th May
1924 he sets off for America
with his parents
1929 he comes back to Italy to study
Economics at the University of Genova
1931 he participates in Marinetti’s
futurist movement.
1931 he marries Nora Maffi
1935 he graduates in Economics and
starts to become interested in design
1939 he is obliged to emigrate to
the United States with his family
as a consequence of the racial laws.
1939 “Never underestimate the power
of a woman” the first famous
slogan of his career in editorial
graphics and commercial art.
1959 he publishes his first book for
children: Little Blue and Little Yellow.
1962 he returns to Italy and also begins
a new career as writer and illustrator
of children’s books
1999 he dies on 11th October in Radda
nel Chianti
designer the English term indicates
someone who produces objects
following a method that considers
function, beauty and cost of the
product. The designer offers his work
to the great public of consumers.
Bauhaus founded in Weimar in 1919
by Walter Gropius to overcome
the distinction between art and craft
integrating art and industry.
Among the teachers Vasilij Kandinskij,
Paul Klee, Josef Albers, Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe. Contested by academic
culture and opposed by Nazism,
the Bauhaus was closed in 1933.
Its ideas and experiences continue
to exert a great influence on art
trends and architecture in Western
Europe and in the United States.
art director professional figure
that defines artistic and graphic
choices of an editorial project.
I am Leo Lionni
Lionni is a narrator of contemporaneity who as an artist, intellectual and designer
has elaborated a cleverly filtered line of thought throughout his children’s stories.
A Western story-teller who has distilled his artistic, visual, political, and aesthetic
wisdom to convey it with courage and responsibility to the new generations.
As his autobiography, Between Worlds, brings out, Lionni lives between two worlds,
Europe and America, dialoguing with the artistic trends of his times; from Marinetti’s
futurists known in Milano, to the artists of the Bauhaus in Germany,
and to the intellectual milieu of post-war America.
Lionni was born in 1910 in Amsterdam, his father was a diamond cutter and his mother
an opera singer. He escapes from the war, he marries Nora Maffi in Italy who will become
the companion of his life. In Italy he studies economics, but once he gets to America
he starts working as a graphic designer and designer. He lives in New York in the
nerve centre of visual communication, in the vital centre of new Western culture.
He is art director of Fortune and Print, two of the most revolutionary magazines
of communication. He teaches graphics and visual communication at Black Mountain
College, the “American Bauhaus”, directed by the artist Joseph Albers. When he is fifty
years old he changes life and goes back to Italy where he sets up his house studio
in the hills of Chianti, in Tuscany. He practises many forms of art, travels, plays music,
writes, paints and sculpts. In this period, he produces many books for children,
publishing one a year. This “second” activity today represents his major strength,
his most complete artistic form. His books are real and proper works of art dedicated
to children. Few authors and artists have attributed such value to children, offering
them his life and artistic experiences with the greatest seriousness. Leo Lionni,
a thinker, a creative person, a master in his capacity to narrate, is a character that
cannot be eluded; an artist who believes that making books for children is a privilege,
a point of arrival, a responsibility.
1951 from left Paolo, Nora,
Leo and Mannie Lionni
Black Mountain College
founded in 1933 in North Carolina
by John Andrew Rice, the BMC bases
itself on the principle of “learning
by doing”, inspired by the thinking
of the philosopher and pedagogist
John Dewey. In 1933 Josef Albers
introduced the principles of the
Bauhaus. Over the years teachers
of the calibre of John Cage, Merce
Cunningham,Willem de Kooning,
Franz Kline, Charles Olson, Robert
Rauschenberg, teach there.
The school closed in 1956 but its
legacy continues to be a source of
inspiration for American art culture.
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work file
Collector in a general sense
a collector collects original
and sophisticated objects
in a systematic way. Collecting art
is a cultural phenomenon
of great cultural value in that it
has contributed and continues
to contribute to the conservation
of works of art facilitating
the formation of important
museum collections.
chiaroscuro a pictorial procedure
obtained through the modulation
of the intensity of shades of light,
used in visual arts to express the
fullness of the subjects represented.
Leo’s life and Matthew’s dream
“When, as a child, I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer
was simply,‘an artist.’ During the seventy years that followed, I have remained
loyal to that early promise... I am interested in the full range of artistic experience,
of which design is an integral — not a separate — part. I believe that through first
hand-experience in all the arts, the problems of vision, both real and imaginary,
can be seen in a sharper focus and solved with greater freedom”
Leo Lionni
Leo’s uncle, Renè, is an important art collector ; he loves above all Surrealism
and Dadaism, he owns works by Picasso, De Chirico and the early works of Mirò.
Given that he is short of room in his apartment, the uncle asks Leo’s parents to keep
some of his works at their house. So the young Leo quickly learns to become familiar
with the great artists of the 1900, like Chagall who fills him with admiration
and curiosity. His passion for art grows. His uncle Piet gives him pencils and colours
and teaches him the techniques of chiaroscuro. Leo begins to dedicate more time
to drawing, visiting the museum of Rijks to copy paintings and scultures.
All of Leo’s books have their origin in a direct experience and offer his thoughts and ideas.
1966 Lionni photographed between his Profili
by Ugo Mulas. Milano, Galleria L’Ariete
4
Autobiographic the narration
that an author proposes of his life
and the stories that concern him.
the book
Matthew’s dream
Matthew’s dream
first edition 1990
Matthew’s dream is the most autobiographic book by Leo. It tells the story of the
mouse Matthew, a dreamer. Matthew lives in a dusty attic with his parents who dream
that their son may one day become a doctor.
Matthew has no idea what he will do when he grows up, until the day he goes to
a museum with his class.
In the big paintings on show he realizes that the whole world is represented inside them.
That night he dreams colours and marvellous imaginary worlds.“I want to be a painter”
he announces on waking up. He works hard, creating many works of art, reaching fame
and success. Finally he meets Nicoletta, his loved one.
Discussion points
In these pages we can read suggestions for exploring many themes with young people.
There is the theme of leaving poverty behind oneself to embrace the richness and
happiness offered by art. We also confront the reality which is different from the desires
that motivate our actions and choices. We come across the decision to undertake a
profession and thus a position
in the world, with the responsibility that this entails. There is the distinction between
the works carried out for money,“to eat Parmesan at breakfast, lunch and dinner…..”
and those carried out as an expression of an inner need. There are the parents, with
their expectations and their support. Lastly, there is the question of art education
with the children visiting the museum.
Activity
Matthew’s dream comes true thanks to his commitment and his tenacity.
Narrate the lives of other personalities who have realized their dreams,
people like Gandhi and Mandela, artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Paul Gauguin.
Ask each student what they hope to do as adults. Which obstacles must be overcome?
What type of commitment is required? Get the children to draw the fundamental
steps of the narration of their dreams.
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racial persecutions Systematic
actions of forces aimed to reduce
or downright eliminate
an ethnic or social minority.
Graphic designer professional
figure that projects and realizes
visual communication projects.
He works on the design of brands,
labels, packing, wrapping; in the
editorial sector it deals with layout of
catalogues, newspapers, magazines.
bohémien the term is used
in France in the 19th century
when artists and poets began
to frequent the underworld
of the qypsy community. It was
a popular belief that gypsies came
from Bohemia, a region of the current
Republic of Czechoslovakia. Giving
rise to the term bohémien used from
then on to describe who lives in a
free and anti-conformist way.
Leo’s friends
Leo Lionni’s friends, important
exponents of the cultural life of
the times, are a source of inspiration
for his research. Lionni is a well rounded
intellectual that contributes to the
development of the thinking and culture
of his time. This has made him into
a great author for children’s stories.
Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder was born in
Pennsylvania in 1898. He graduates in
Mechanical Engineering but, encouraged
by his sculptor father, he decides to
devote himself to art. He attends an art
school in New York supporting himself
by working as an illustrator. In 1926 he
moves to Paris where he presents The
Circus, a mise-en-scene which features
miniature figures made from iron wire,
wood and material. Even in the portraits
Calder works the iron wire creating faces
of extraordinary resemblance. In the
30s he paints his first abstract drawings
playing with asymmetry and prospective
irregularity: a system where soon the
movement of the famous mobiles takes
over. Here the artist harmonizes form,
colour and movement in an essential
whole, conceived as a “universe”,
where “every element can move,
be shifted, oscillate back and forth”.
Between the 50s and 60s he creates
the first stabiles, wire sculptures
of an imposing size that look like
gigantic insects, sad birds with their
wings bent towards the ground.
Calder travels back and forth from
Europe to America creating works
of every sort.
He dies in New York in 1976.
work file
Calder and Lionni and Alexander and the wind-up mouse
Greetings between Leo Lionni e Alexander Calder / photo U. Mulas,
in Leo Lionni. L’immaginario come mestiere, Electa 1990
“In the autumn of 1990, for the occasion of my retrospective at the Museum of Modern
Art of Bologna, a press conference on the morning of the opening was organized.
A young woman, the Italian correspondent for Die Zeit, asked me :‘as far as I know you
have always been a good friend of Alexander Calder. Our readers would like to know
if you could give them a fragment of some important conversation between you
and Calder. Could you?’ I nodded. And I dictated my answer slowly:‘I said to him,
you’re a good dancer, and he answered, you’re a good dancer too’.
Leo Lionni
After the Second World War Europe ceases to be the centre of artistic culture.
Cultural relations between Europe and America, already frequent in the first part
of the century, intensify themselves thanks to the presence of many artists in exile
in New York, who were escaping from the war which raged through Europe.
Artistic research in that period is open, experimental, playful, inventive in form,
in its use of colour and different media. Ideas are more important than techniques.
It is in this climate of cultural ferment that the two artists meet, share their ideas
with critical friends, philosophers and artists of the international scene.
In 1939 Lionni emigrates to America to escape racial persecutions. After a few
weeks he is taken on as a graphic designer in an advertising agency of Philadelphia,
the third most important in the USA. During this period he meets Alexander Calder.
On some occasions he uses his mobiles to illustrate advertisements for the most
sophisticated clients of the agency. They meet once again in New York where Lionni
is the artistic director of the magazine Fortune.
In his biography Leo describes Calder as a bizarre and extroverted artist with whom
he prefers not to enter in close relations. Lionni confesses that Calder incarnates that
type of profession that, from his early childhood, represents his dream. Lionni feels torn
between his two callings: the bohemien artist and the successful graphic designer.
It is in Robert Osborn’s house, a talented designer and illustator, that Lionni and Calder’s
real friendship takes off, thanks to a waltz that they dance together, undermining
in this way their mutual distrust. Leo Lionni and Alexander Calder share different roles
in a common vision of living the art of their times. Both are inspired by form,
attracted by movement and visual perceptions, intent on narrating a similar poetic world.
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Ben Shahn. Art and politics
Ben Shahn, famous American artist,
represents the idea of art as an
instrument that can trigger off an
inner awakening and the artist as a
tool that is capable of talking
to man about his aesthetic, political
and social possibilities. Thanks to him
and to their friendship we find the
messages that have ended up in
Lionni’s stories, indispensible in the
education of a growing individual. Ben
Shahn and Leo are both politically
active as well.
The book
Alexander and the wind-up mouse
Alexander and the wind-up mouse
First edition 1969
Eric Carle. The illustration
Eric Carle is a great friend of Lionni’s.
When he turns up with some stories
and sketches, Lionni is fascinated by his
painted papers and by his textures
and he suggestes betting on those.
Today Carle is the author of children’s
books and has opened an important
museum dedicated to illustration.
Bruno Bettelheim. Child psychology.
Bruno Bettelheim writes for Leo
a wonderful introduction in the book
The Frederick’s Fables. His attention to
the value of the stories testify just how
much the written and illustrated texts
carry universal messages powerfully.
Speaking of Leo’s images, Bettelheim
says:“It is the genius of the artist that
allows him to create messages that
are much more important than
the object represented in itself.”
texture English term that refers to
“Alexander e il topo meccanico, mi ha profondamente coinvolto…
Sento che il grande problema di oggi è il nostro libero arbitrio.
Questa è la scelta che agita il mondo in questa epoca di cambiamenti.
Saremo menti vere, o menti meccaniche?
Comprendo anche che io, date le mie origini e la mia educazione reagirò
in un dato modo, nonostante sia consapevole che sarà una causa persa.
Dovrò combattere la mia battaglia personale contro le “menti meccaniche”
e questo è quello di cui parla Alessandro e il topo meccanico.”
Leo Lionni
The book touches one of the themes closest to Leo Lionni who, at the height
of his career as art director, undergoes a profound existential crisis. He is torn
between a world of professionals who are involved in choosing and utilizing other
people’s art and the free and creative world of those who realize works that guide
the world towards beauty. Alexander Calder a free, informal, eccentric spirit becomes
a source of inspiration for the big revolution of his life.
In 1962 Leo resigns from his job in America and moves to Italy to dedicate himself
to the dream of becoming an artist.
Two mice live in a house. The first, Alexander doesn’t have an easy life, the inhabitants
of the house hate him and when they see him they scream and throw objects at him.
He lives in a hole in the wall, which is certainly not very welcoming. One day he meets
Pippo, a mechanical mouse. Pippo leads a very different life, even though he is always
a mouse. He dreams among soft pillows, is pampered, and Gisella, the girl of the house,
plays with him and looks after him.
Pippo and Alexander become friends, in spite of the differences.
Alexander dreams of becoming just like Pippo so as to enjoy his privileges.
In order to make his dream come true there is only one way: talk to the magical lizard
who can grant animals their wishes
But when finally his wish can be granted, Alessandro realizes that the life of a free
mouse is more intense and real, in spite of the suffering. He decides therefore to give
his wish away to Pippo, transforming him into a real mouse.
a surface characterized by a sign
which is repeated ad infinitum
in a uniform fashion like the grain
in plaster, the mills for metal plates,
the weaves in fabrics.
7
Fabio Coen. Books and publishing.
Being a good artist is not enough
in order to become the author
of children’s books. Fabio Coen explains
to Leo how to translate a story into “
a book”. In 1959 he publishes Little Blue
and Little Yellow for Obolensky Inc.
and Lionni becomes, also thanks to
him, a children’s author. Mr Coen works
with many established authors and
illustrators among which Roald Dahl,
Roger Duvoisin and Robert Cormier.
Discussion points
This book deals with the freedom of choice and of learning to assess situations seriously.
Pippo is a mechanical mouse; he seems happy but he depends completely on someone
else for decisions regarding his life and future. Alexander is free, he knows the garden,
the moon, he runs among the blades of glass, he knows sadness and misery,
but also the taste of food and the joy of dancing.
Rituality, the cult of the moon and magic arts, reveal in this book Lionni’s love
for those celebrations that man performs with gratitude towards nature.
How many wind-up mice do we know? Perhaps if they too as young mice had read
this story carefully, they would have had a better idea of how to deal with life
and make the right choices for their future
Activity
Giulio Gianini. Animation
Today animation uses advanced
technologies and interactive cartoons
and 3D film are no longer a novelty.
Lionni and Gianini, in the period in
which the techniques were still handcrafted, produce 5 shorts based on Leo’s
stories. From the mid 50s Gianini
meets Emanuele Luzzati, with whom
he shares a passion for puppet theatres
and in 1960 they make the first
animated film The paladins of France.
Are we sure we would be happy if we could fulfil our wishes? Ask the children to write
down what they desire the most, after having discussed and talked about it in class.
Mix the desires and pull them out one at a time trying to see if the desires of one
can make the others happy.
Invent with the children a rhyming magical formula, work out conditions for when
it can be effective, for example during a full moon, when barefoot, or with uttered
in a deep voice. Act out the new formula in class taking on the roles of Alexander
and of the lizard.
Adriano Olivetti. Graphics and design
Lionni earns his place among
the famous graphic designers
by winning the gold medal of Aiga.
Adriano Olivetti, extraordinary and
multifaceted entrepreneur, intellectual
and editor, who gathered many free
and communicating minds of his
time at around him, makes sure not
to let him escape! Lionni curates
some Olivetti showrooms and studies
a communication campaign with him.
Aiga The American Institute
of Graphic Arts, founded in 1914,
is the most important organization
for the promotion of design.
It currently represents more than
22.000 professionals, educators
and students.
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work file
For the 50th anniversary of Little blue and little yellow
“It would take more than one evening with Fabio before I could fully
understand how much the simple little tale of two blobs of color would affect
my soul, my mind and my way of life.”
Leo lionni
“Two pieces of coloured paper, or better still two colours, experience a number
of situations on the page which the young reader can identify with. A book on friendship,
freedom and independence, identity and diversity. The artist makes the blobs of colour
on the paper “act”, fragments of a collage which the hand moves to follow the narration.
Writing in its purest state, where the shapes, with the extreme rigour and lightness
of the graphic composition, speak for themselves.”2 Little Blue and Little Yellow go out
and lose track of time in a myriad of games, exploring the world and they become green
after a big hug. Once back home, their parents no longer recognize them and refuse to let
them in, because they are different from when they went out. The two, who are not yet
ready to face the world alone, despair. Having shed all their solitary tears, they find
their individuality and their own color once again.
They understand something that neither adult had been able to see.
Once back home, united but separate, they are finally recognized and understood.
For all concerned, life begins to run smoothly, characterized by a new understanding
of the ways and the colours of friendship.
Published in 1959 it is Lionni’s first children’s book and marks an important date
in the history of illustrated books in America, where it soon becomes a best seller.
Calder e Lionni.
The story of a friendship
workshop / photo A. Cacciani
9
The book
Little blue and little yellow
Little blue and little yellow
first edition 1959
Little blue and little yellow tells the story of a friendship and of the transformation
that meeting another person can bring about. Of how much experience can be a unifying
factor and just how easy it is to lose oneself in the other. It is important, instead,
to find one’s boundaries, know how to “fuse” together but also how to separate.
Not being able to recognize one’s boundaries anymore to distinguish oneself
from friends is dangerous and generates a lot of suffering.
Little blue and little yellow is a inimitable work. Its simplicity and its immediacy according
with its depth, have made it a milestone in children’s publishing.
Its uniqueness and the courage it displays in the choice of color and form
have rendered it a timeless and unique work.
Discussion points
The themes we face in this book are many and each of them can stimulate new ideas
and comparisons.
Friendship
It is one of the first discoveries of children: meeting others and the changes that follow.
Little Blue and Little Yellow are equal but profoundly different to the point where they fuse
into a perfect union. The theory of colours similar to the theory of life.
Visual perception
Little blue and little yellow is also a lesson on visual perception that is the result
of “the hundreds of experiments to define the characteristics of the different positions
within the space, to narrate stories in which position becomes part of the language”3.
Lionni, designer and graphic designer, utilizes the different theories of visual perception
with extreme ease. Let’s try to list them:
• the point of view
The reader’s point of view changes continuously according to an interesting exercise of
imagination. In the book we first see Little Blue’s house from the front, then we get an
aerial view of the children sitting in class or playing roundabout in the school courtyard.
Shifting into an imaginary space is a capacity that belongs to man and can be cultivated
in order to best capture a visual message.
10
• Colour can move us
While Little Blue is looking for his friend, the colour of the world changes.
White when he sets off on his search, black when he has lost hope of finding him,
red when tension reaches a peak, just before turning the corner. Colour dialogues
with our emotional world, it has an important influence on our perceptions
and it communicates in visual terms a world of emotions.
Leo Lionni
from Little blu and little yellow, 1959
• Position in the space
The page becomes a small stage, a space in which the actors, the blotches of colour,
move in a disoriented fashion, stop in an orderly manner when reaching their position,
they chase each other whilst entering from the left and leave from the right.
When Little Green is tired, instead of flying to the centre of the page, he sits
in the background of the page… it’s time to go home.
• the shape
The shapes give the sense and the measure of the space as do Calder’s mobiles,
abstract sculptures made of wire and metal plates that move, thanks to a perfect,
complicated, but exposed system of equilibriums. The various elements respond to
the air currents with a movement which could be described as “the agile and graceful
passing of clouds on a windy day”4, creating a casual and changing relationship
with the space in which they move. In Little blue and little yellow the parents
and children can be told apart, just like their gestures and their looks; Lionni manages
to eliminate everything that is superfluous and to give us back the essence of a shape.
When Little Blue’s dad raises his son towards the sky, we all mange to see his hands,
his eyes and to perceive the emotion of this simple and universal gesture.
11
Activity
Ask the children to choose a coloured cardboard and to cut up a number
of “characters” that correspond to the number of members of their family.
Each figure must be represented by the shape that defines its most prominent
characteristic, without adding details or particulars like hair, eyes, etc.
For example, a tall parent will have a thin and elongated shape, an anxious aunt
will have a zig-zag shape. Finish off the work by choosing a coloured cardboard
to create the house for all the family.
Train your capacity to observe, take the illustrated books that you have in your classroom
and ask the students to understand where the observer’s eye is. Does it fly? Is it high up?
Is it below the horizon? Try to get the students to illustrate an image that has many
different visual points of view. An illustrator that does this a lot is Roberto Innocenti.
Try to leaf through his books in class.
Calder e Lionni.
The story of a friendship
workshop / photo A. Cacciani
The choice of colours in Little blue and little yellow is not casual.
Read the book in class and observe the different uses of colour by trying to recognize
the emotions of the characters.
In Lionni’s text, moods and situations are communicated through simple abstract
forms that move in the space of a page following precise rules of composition.
Give the students small cardboard cut-out shapes, inspired by Calder’s, to create
different types of spaces: closed, open, disorderly, orderly, empty, full. Choose
the composition you prefer and glue the shapes onto a piece of tracing paper.
Cut the tracing paper around the shapes leaving subtle links between the two.
The composition will become a light structure that can be hung by a transparent string.
Calder e Lionni.
The story of a friendship
workshop / photo A. Cacciani
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work file
1961 Leo Lionni, on the beach in Lavagna
Leo’s world
“…my worlds in miniature, when closed within the glass walls of yesterday,
or within today’s covers are surprisingly similar, both are the orderly and predictable
alternatives to the chaotic, unmanageable, terrifying, universe of the world.”
Leo Lionni
Lionni’s great poetic themes define the contours of a method that narrates
his way of interpreting the world. A great contemporary of Leo Lionni from the design
and creativity scene is Bruno Munari. The two are often and not coincidentally
compared. Both looked for a method, a way of making the complexity of the universe
closer and more comprehensible. According to Leo our inalienabile aim is to learn to see
the world,“to read meanings into things.
micro worlds
One of Leo’s tendencies is to concentrate on particulars. Looking at the pebbles on
a beach to the point where they come to life, looking at a small corner of the garden to
the point where all the possible events that could take place there are narrated.
If one looks from very close-up you can train your eyes to notice the changes
that affect things. That’s what children do continuously, they live in reality and,
at the same time, seek shelter in a world made up of small precious things.
method the group of laws
and rules that determine a way
of dealing with a project.
the deceit
Another recurring theme in Lionni is the theme of ’“deceit”. Not deceit in the negative
sense but the fiction of representation, because art teaches us to believe even in things
that are not real. It is the principle that makes it possible for us to listen to stories
and empathize with them as soon as the narration starts:“It was a rainy morning”…
and suddenly we feel the rain, even if outside it is a nice sunny day. A “deceit” that Lionni
takes to extreme consequences in Parallel Botanics, in which he creates an alternative
world where the absurd becomes normal. Imaginary plants like the Tirilli, the Giralune,
the Solee are bronze works which give life to an imaginary Garden,
an extraordinary example of creativity. Lionni dreams up plants whose rules
and botanical laws are totally invented, but absolutely credible.
Bruno Munari
(Milano, 1907 – 1998) He is one
of the most significant protagonists
in the world of art, design
and graphic design of the 1900s,
making significant contributions
to the different fields of visual
communication with a multifaceted
research into the theme
of movement, light and the
development of the child’s
creativity through play.
13
“Why a black table? – asks Leo’s mum. – Because on black all colors are better!”
Leo Lionni
Leo Lionni, Camaleonte, 1991
the Terrariums
Leo as a child spent a lot of time playing, not alone, but in solitude, as he likes to say.
He spends his time with creatures from his terrariums, small lizards, tadpoles,
frogs and insects of every type that live in boxes in which Leo recreates an eco system
with rocks, earth, water and plants.
Years later Lionni discovers that his illustrated books are very similar to those terrariums.
His books, in fact, talk about a small world in which lizards (Cornelius), chameleons
(A colour of his own), mice (Federico & company), tadpoles (Fish is fish), snails
(The biggest house in the world) live immersed in nature.
The terrariums like the books describe a small universe, regulated by simple laws,
in which the stories take place that find a limit and a creative energy in the rigid
scheme of natural laws.
the celebration
Man does not need art and music to live, to feed himself, to clothe himself. Artists,
according to Leo, work to express their gratitude to the world. For Lionni, art is celebration.
“Celebrating man, his humanity, his history, his culture. You know there are words which
present themselves almost like objects, that have a certain weight, but that you don’t
really understand. One of these is sacredness. What is sacredness? For an atheist I think I
overdo it with this word.Sacredness is what I would would expect from my best work, a
respect, a dignity and a pride, a moment of joy for the fact that I with billions of other
people are building a civilization, as we have done.”
Leo’s characters too, dance under the moon, run in fields, are poets and painters, they are
full of imagination and dream. They are never tired of rejoicing.
14
The book
On my beach there are many pebbles
On my beach there are many pebbles
First Edition 1961
“I have never thought of it, but perhaps the pebble is a sort of symbol to me.
I am always fascinated by man’s position in nature...perhaps the pebble symbolizes
something nature tries to do which only man can really do. There may be another
partially unconscious reason perhaps. If you look in nature for portable things there are
really very few. what have you? Berries, pebbles, feathers, nuts... a friend of mine
claims that man became man when he first picked a pebble and decided to carry it
around with him.”
Leo Lionni
On my beach there are many pebbles doesn’t really contain a story. It is an imaginary
catalogue of pebbles that can be found on a beach, on Leo’s beach. The book has little
writing and is an exercise in imagination. The pebbles are an element that can be found
in many of Lionni’s books, we see them in Federico, in It’s mine!, in The biggest house
in the world, in Swimmy and in Alexander and the wind-up mouse.
The pebbles are a beautiful and natural element. As if an artist’s hand had designed
them, taking the most evocative shapes and colours. The pebbles of this book are not
photographed like Munari’s, they are drawn, invented, as if they were copied from reality.
The black and white drawings makes them real. The amusing aspect is that at the
beginning we think they are real, but we soon discover that we are dealing with a deceit.
The power of imagination is believing in things that may not be true and imagining them
to the point where they come to life and begin to exist in a parallel and interior world.
1
in C. Francucci e P. Vassalli (a cura di),
Educare all’arte. Immagini Esperienze
Percorsi, Electa 2009
2
in C. Francucci e P. Vassalli (a cura di), ibid.
3
P. Vassalli e A. Rauch (a cura di) Leo Lionni.
Art as a celebration, Santa Maria della
Scala, Siena, 1997 (cat. mostra)
4
Giovanni Carandente, Alexander Calder,
Mondadori Electa, 2008
Activity
Ask the children to choose an element present in nature: flowers, trees, rivers, mountains.
Catalogue each element chosen and associate many impossibile characteristics to them.
For example flowers that speak, fly, dance. The river that tells stories, tickles people
or stains skin. For each invented species, describe their behavior and features
and classify them as a real and proper archive.
Images without any source indication
come from P. Vassalli and A. Rauch
(edited by) in collaboration with
Kiyoko Matsuoka, Leo Lionni. Art as a
celebration, Itabashi Art Museum,
Tokyo 1996 - Santa Maria della Scala,
Siena 1997 (exhibition catalogue)
15
this dossier has been realized
in occasion of the event
Calder and Lionni.
The story of a friendship
23 october 2009
14 february 2010
credits
project
Servizi Educativi
Laboratorio d’arte
head
Paola Vassalli
Suggested reading by Scaffale d’arte
curators
Deborah Soria
con Laura Scarlata
For adults
AA.VV. Leo Lionni. L’immaginario come mestiere, Electa 1990 (cat. mostra)
J. Baal-Teshuva Calder, Taschen 2002
A. Calder Autobiografia, Marsilio 1984
reading suggestions
Blume Gra and Laura Scarlata
A. Calder The Man of the Future. An Investigation of the Laws Which Determine Happiness,
Bibliolife 2009
organizer
G. Carandente Alexander Calder, Mondadori Electa 2008
Elena Fierli
L. Lionni Between worlds. The Autobiagraphy of Leo Lionni, Alfred A. Knopf 1997
english translations
L. Lionni La botanica parallela, Adelphi 1976
Nancy Podimane
J.C. Marcade Calder, Flammarion 1996
Graphic project
U. Mulas Alexander Calder, Officina libraria 2008
thewashingmachine.it
P. Vassalli e A. Rauch (a cura di) Leo Lionni. Art as a celebration, Santa Maria della Scala,
info • activity and workshops
Siena 1997 (cat. mostra)
Calder and Lionni. The story of a friendship C. Vilardebo La magie Calder. Le cirque de Calder, CD les films du paradoxe
Pre-school and primary
From Tuesday to Friday from
10.00am•11.30am
Entrance fee euro 4,00
(free for pre-schoolers)
Activity euro 80,00 per class group
Free entrance for one chaperon for every
10 students
It is possible to accept two classes
contemporaneously offering different
activities to each class
Maximum size of each class 25 students
For children
AA. VV Calder, rivista Dada n. 146, Mango 2009
A. Calder Animal Sketching, Dilecta Edition 2009
A. Calder Selected Fables of Jean de La Fontaine, Dover Publications 1968
E. Carle Il camaleonte variopinto, Mondadori 1989
A. Cortery, F. de Guibert Alexander Calder, Editions de la Réunion des Museés
Nationaux-Hatier Jeunesse 2009
S. Curtil Alexander Calder. Fishbones (Arêtes de poisson), L’art en jeu, Centre Georges
Pompidou 1989
S. Delpech, Caroline Leclerc Alexander Calder, Edition Palette 2009
Esopo, A. Calder Fables of Aesop, Dover Publications 1967
Let’s play with…
P. Geis La petite galerie de Calder, Edition Palette 2009
little blue and little yellow
R. Innocenti, E. T Hoffmann Lo Schiaccianoci, La Margherita Edizioni 2008
Children from the age of 3 to 6
with their parents.
C. Larroche Calder. La magicien des airs, Edition Palette 2008
Sunday from 11.00am to 1pm
T. Lee Stone, B. Kulikov Sandy’s Circus: A Story about Alexander Calder,
Activity + entrance to exhibition euro 8,00 Viking Children’s Books 2008
It is necessary to arrive 15 minutes
L. Lionni On my beach there are many pebbles, Harper Collins 1995
before the hour indicated.
L. Lionni Little blue and little yellow, Random House 2009
Calder and Lionni. The story of a friendship L. Lionni A colour of his own, Random House 2006
Students from the age of 7 to 11
L. Lionni It’s mine!, Random House 1996
Sunday from 11.00am to 1.pm
L. Lionni Swimmy, Random House 1992
Activity + entrance to exhibition euro 12,00
L. Lionni Fish is fish, Random House 1996
It is necessary to arrive 15 minutes
L. Lionni Matthew’s dream, Random House 1995
before the hour indicated.
L. Lionni Alexander and the wind-up mouse, Random House 2006
L. Lionni Cornelius, Random Housei 1994
Family packet
L. Lionni The biggest house in the world, Dragonfly books 1973
while the children are involved
A. Schaefer Alexander Calder, Heinemann Library 2002
in the activity, the adults (max 2 per child)
can visit the exhibition paying
a reduced admission fee:
activity and reduced admission
fee to the exhibition 10,00 euro per child
reduced admission fee 7,50 euro per adult
booking advised 1,50 euro
Web sites
http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/lionni/
http://www.picturebookart.org/
http://www.dedham.k12.ma.us/webquest/fall2003/cm/webquest.htm
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalist-leolionni
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