My blog includes news and reviews of books and events.
Return to all blog posts
Blake’s heaven
13 Jul 2024
The title of this post is not a vague homophone for the seventies BBC sci-fi show but rather an assessment of the glorious exhibition of sixty Quentin Blake book covers at the Oxfordshire Museum that runs until early September 2024.
Quentin Blake has been illustrating books for over six decades and started his career taking commissions to provide illustrations for both children’s and adult book covers.
You are welcomed to the exhibition by the outstretched arms and wide smile of the mono-booted yet balletic Mister Magnolia. As I moved from display case to display case, the lines of his story replayed in my mind, and I considered how Blake’s exuberant exploitation of a rhyme in both words and pictures must surely have influenced the likes of Kes Gray and Jim Field in their ‘Oi!’ series or Ross Collins’ sequence of books that started with There’s a Bear on My Chair.
But there’s a joyful innocence to Mister Magnolia that’s a counterpoint to the edgier tonality of contemporary books where characters might frown or raise a sardonic eyebrow. It’s hard to imagine Mister Magnolia ever doing that!
It’s wonderful to see some of Blake’s original paintings alongside the finished covers and appreciate how he interpreted a brief or how his compositions worked with the cover’s design and typography.
Some of the books on show demonstrate the fruitful and long-standing creative collaborations that Quentin Blake established with children’s authors such as Joan Aiken and Michael Rosen. Seeing the Jackanory-branded edition of Arabel’s Raven took me straight back to my childhood, listening to Bernard Cribbins read from his armchair and watching the camera pan over the black-and-white inside illustrations.
A homely corner of the exhibition space is arranged to encourage adults and children alike to browse or dip into a bookcase selection of titles illustrated by Blake. A second room invites busy creativity from younger visitors (with low tables supplied with pencils and crayons and a dressing up box for posing next to a cut-out of Mister Magnolia) or just reading and dreaming on a daybed complete with an Esio Trot duvet.
The exhibition also recognises Blake’s versatility as an artist by showcasing a range of his book covers for editions of adult fiction published by Penguin in the 1960s. On each cover Blake’s dynamic, expressive line-work distils his arresting visual response as a reader to books by authors such as Malcolm Bradbury, Evelyn Waugh and Kingsley Amis.
A quote from the 91-year-old artist reminds gallery-goers that ‘drawing book covers is one of the most difficult things’ but the exhibition is surely a celebration of Blake’s evident talent for this particular branch of visual arts.