Dulwich Picture Gallery
25 October 2017 – 28 January 2018
Dulwich Picture Gallery will present the first major UK retrospective of work by one of the most celebrated illustrators of the 20th century, Tove Jansson (1914-2001). Known internationally as creator of the Moomin characters and books, a phenomenon which continues to stretch across generations, Jansson’s wider outputs of graphic illustration and painting are relatively unseen outside her home country of Finland.
Mysterious Landscape, Tove Jansson, c. 1930
Tove Jansson will bring together 150 works to reintroduce Jansson as an artist of exceptional breadth and talent, tracing the key stages of her proli c career including her surrealist-inspired paintings of the 1930s and abstract work of the ‘60s, her satirical anti-war cartoons and book jacket designs, as well as a comprehensive display of early sketches for the Moomin characters and original comic strips.
The exhibition opens with Jansson’s self-portraits, landscapes and still-lifes, many of which have never been seen before in the UK. Although Jansson worked with various different media throughout her life, she always considered herself primarily a painter. Works such as Mysterious Landscape, 1930s, reveal her early fascination with storytelling and colour whilst a key selection of self-portraits painted during the 1930s and ‘40s allow us to interpret the emotional climate of the different stages of Jansson’s life. The Smoking Girl, 1940, shows Jansson as de ant and challenging, depicting a moment of deep concentration, whilst two years later in Lynx Boa (Self Portrait), 1942, the expression is softer and calmer, yet full of courage and self-esteem.
During her rst decades as an artist, Jansson produced an astonishing variety of illustrations. At the young age of 15, her already formidable talent for caricature caught the attention of the liberal political satire magazine, Garm, and she went on to draw more than 500 caricatures and 100 cover images for them. In contrast to her paintings, Jansson eagerly captured the ravages of war in her illustrations, employing them to such an extent that the political cartoons she published openly under her own name were quite daring. A display of illustrations will reveal Jansson’s boldness and staunch opposition to war, fascism and totalitarianism.
Illustrating for Garm provided Jansson with the experimental space to introduce the first resemblance of Moomintroll who appeared as the long snouted troll, ‘Snork’ in 1943. He would have frequent cameo appearances in her future drawings for the magazine, appearing in the sidelines or embroiled in the cartoon itself.
The Moomin characters brought together Jansson’s gifts as an artist with her uency as a writer. Jansson began writing stories about the Moomins during the war. As early as the 1930s she had drawn Moomin-like gures that were black and thin, with red eyes, whilst the Moomins we know today are rounder and friendlier in appearance. A display of original book illustrations for the series along with comic strips for the Finnish magazine, Ny Tid and the widely read, The Evening News, will provide an insight into the genesis of the Moomin phenomenon. It will also highlight key in uences on the subject and the development of Jansson’s illustrations including her experience of the war and the Jansson family dynamic.
達利奇畫廊為二十世紀最著名的插畫家之一托夫•揚松舉辦了其在英國的首次大型回顧展《托芙•揚松（1914-2001）》。揚松因為創作姆明這個風靡數代人的漫畫形象和書籍而享譽世界，實際上她的創作還涉及到平面插畫和油畫，然而它們在揚松的祖國芬蘭之外相對並未受到關注。
為了讓公眾重新認識這位多才多藝的藝術家，《托芙•揚松》展覽匯集了150件作品，追溯了她多產的職業生涯中的關鍵時期，包括她在1930年代的受超現實主義影響的繪畫、1960年代的抽象作品、諷刺性的反戰漫畫和書封設計，並全面展示了姆咪的早期草圖和連環畫原稿。
這次展覽還會展出揚松的自畫像、風景和靜物畫，其中許多從未在英國展出。揚松一直視自己是一位畫家，在其藝術生涯的第一個十年裡，她創作了種類多得驚人的插畫，它們顯示了揚松敢作敢為與堅決反對戰爭、法西斯主義和極權主義的態度。揚松在戰爭期間便開始撰寫姆明的故事，這個漫畫形象結合了她過人的藝術天分與流暢的文筆。在原版圖書插畫的展示中觀眾可以進一步了解姆明風潮的起源。
展覽場地：達利奇畫廊
展覽時間：2017年10月25日至2018年1月28日
更多信息：www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk
