Rome, at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni an exhibition on the illustrator Vladimir Radunsky

Until May 19, Palazzo Esposizioni Roma presents, in the spaces of Sala Fontana, the exhibition Vladimir Radunsky promoted by theDepartment of Culture of Roma Capitale and Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, produced and organized by Azienda Speciale Palaexpo.

The exhibition, curated by Kiril Ass with Nadja Korbut, is the most comprehensive exhibition dedicated in Italy to Vladimir Radunsky (Perm, 1954 - Rome, 2018), a Russian-born but naturalized American artist who is considered among the world’s best-known illustrators of children’s books, some of which have made it onto the New York Times best sellers list. The exhibition brings together more than one hundred and fifty works including drawings, tapestries, sculptures and some of his most famous life-size animal outfits, as well as some striking editions of his books, which will be freely available to the public.

Vladimir Radunsky has published more than thirty books and his works have been translated in France, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, the Netherlands, Korea and Japan. He has received numerous international awards including The New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award and the Critics in the Grass Award in Bologna. Exhibitions have been devoted to his work in France, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, Japan and the United States.

Born in Moscow in 1954, where he studied fine arts, design and architecture, he emigrated to New York in 1982, where he continued to work as a graphic designer, producing mainly art books. Against the backdrop of the vibrant New York art scene of the 1980s, he turned to a genre that had always fascinated him, children’s books.

From his beginnings, the expressive characteristic of his work emerged, that of approaching different themes and writings-prose or poetry-which prompted him to use different styles and techniques, from realistic painting to abstract collages.

“The technique and style I choose in each book,” Radunsky said, “depend entirely on the theme. I don’t make drawings, I make books.” He has always been fascinated by genre-disparate books: from Square Triangle Round Skinny, a collection of four books made in the form suggested by the title, to Discovery, a lyrical poem written by Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky about the discovery ofAmerica, to What Does Peace Feel Like? whose text is composed of several conversations with children gathered during school visits to America and Europe.

His interactive book Le Grand Bazar, published in Paris by Édition du Panama and subtitled for people with imaginations from 5 to 105 years old, invites the reader to be creative with scissors, pens and staplers. Boy Meets Girl, the book produced in collaboration with Chris Raschka and published by Chronicle Books, is designed to be read by flipping it left to right, right to left, upside down and inside out. In The Mighty Asparagus, published by Harcourt and of which Radunsky is also the author, he combines the works of famous Renaissance painters and his own drawings through collage.

The Hip Hop Dog, written by Chris Raschka and published by Harper Collins, are hip-hop poems for children where graffiti art is transferred from the wall to the book. On a Beam of Light, A Story of Albert Einstein, coauthored with Jennifer Berne and published by Chronicle Books, received six starred reviews and was chosen by Kirkus Review as "Best Book of 2013.“ During an interview Vladimir Radunsky made a statement that more than any other captures the nature of his work: ”Books for children must be funny, because funny things are always sincere. Why else would we ever make them?" More recently and during his extended stays in Rome, he became interested in other art forms. Driven by the belief that there really is a world in which animals wear clothes (the one we all knew in childhood from children’s books), Vladimir Radunsky devoted himself to creating imaginative clothes for large animals.

“I have always tried to be honest with my audience,” said the artist, “I never invent things in my books. I am convinced that an enchanted world in which there are well-dressed, talking animals really exists. My collection is one of the many proofs of that. I have no doubt that after visiting my exhibition, the public will also believe it.”

Equestrian pants for racehorses, a wedding dress for an anaconda, a swimsuit for a hippo, Babbar ’s slippers and other costumes were exhibited in 2008 in Milan’s Nina Due gallery as part of Fashion Week and later, in 2011 at Palazzo Esposizioni Rome.

For the ballet Don Quixote, performed at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome in 2017, Radunsky created the sets and costumes inspired by Mikhail Baryshnikov, who had envisioned this new production as a naive and moving children’s story, a true fairy tale.

For all information, you can visit the official website of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni.

Rome, at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni an exhibition on the illustrator Vladimir Radunsky

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