Ilon Wikland

Ilon Wikland

Ilon Wikland (born February 5, 1930 in Tartu , Estonia ) is a Swedish-Estonian illustrator for children's books. She was best known for her drawings in Astrid Lindgren's books .

Life and career beginnings

Ilon (actually: Maire-Ilon ) Wikland is the daughter of the engineer Max Pääbo and the artist Vida Juse. She spent her childhood in Haapsalu and came to Sweden as a refugee at the age of 14 . She trained as an illustrator and book artist and attended art colleges in Stockholm and London and worked as a graphic designer for publishers.

Cooperation with Astrid Lindgren

In 1953, Ilon Wikland appeared looking for orders from Rabén & Sjögren and met Astrid Lindgren , who worked there as an editor for children's books. At that time she had just finished the manuscript for Mio, mein Mio and asked Wikland for sketches for the book. The author liked them so much that the illustrator was given complete freedom of artistic design in the subsequent decades of collaboration with Lindgren. Only in the case of Karlsson vom Dach and Ronja the robber's daughter did the author request a change in the main character. The original portrayal of Ronja made Lindgren think too much of a Scandinavian rag child and was probably too girlish and delicate for her. Further designs finally led Wikland to the now well-known androgynous girl with the curly head. This also served as a template for a Japanese adaptation , which was drawn by Goro Miyazaki and which came onto Swedish television as a TV animation in 2016 .

Astrid Lindgren held her illustrator in high regard and wrote in the foreword to an exhibition with her pictures:

“With your pictures you have helped my books reach their readers. Many children will remember the pictures you created for life. You will be an unforgettable part of your childhood. "

- Astrid Lindgren

Ilon Wikland illustrated almost all of Astrid Lindgren's books. Exceptions are the illustrations for Michel from Lönneberga by the Swede Björn Berg , as well as those for Pippi Longstocking by Ingrid Vang Nyman from Denmark.

Other works

In addition to working with Astrid Lindgren, Ilon Wikland has also illustrated his own children's books and those of other authors. Some of them are: Elle-Karl Höjeberg, Hans Peterson , Elisabeth Hjortvid, Ann Mari Falk , Rose Lagercrantz , Doris Orgel , Malene Schwartz, Edith Unnerstad .

style

Ilon Wikland's illustration style is unmistakable through the wealth of details and the typical children's figures with snub noses and round cheeks. Most of the book illustrations are finely crafted pen drawings in black and white. Her colored illustrations (book titles and picture books) are mostly pen drawings colored with watercolors, but sometimes also elaborate watercolors. Because of their subjects and colors, they are often reminiscent of the Swedish painter Carl Larsson . However, dark imagery such as that of the Löwenherz brothers are also part of their repertoire. She collects ideas for her characters in everyday life. The model for her drawn version of Karlsson vom Dach was, for example, a short, stocky man she had seen in the market halls of Paris, and her robber figures in Ronja the robber's daughter were inspired by the queue in front of a liquor store.

Work show

From February 14 to June 30, 2015, on the occasion of the artist's 85th birthday , a work exhibition with over 150 original illustrations was on view at LesArt , the Berlin center for children's and youth literature.

Under the title About table and benches - The unique world of images of Ilon Wikland , visitors were given an insight into the impressive range of Ilon Wikland's work. For the first time in Germany, in addition to well-known Lindgren illustrations, originals of books never published in Germany were on view, as well as design work, sketches and private drawings from Wikland. A 40-page booklet was published for the exhibition.

After the exhibition ended, parts of it were shown in the International Youth Library in Munich and in the Koeppenhaus in Greifswald . In November 2016, the LesArt exhibition , which was created in close cooperation with Ilon Wikland, was then on view at the KIBUM in Oldenburg (Oldb) . From May to July 2017 the exhibition was then a guest at the picture book museum in Troisdorf .

Awards

Ilon Wikland has received many awards. In 1969 she received the Elsa Beskow plaque for her entire work. She has been nominated several times for the internationally important Astrid Lindgren Memorial Prize . In 2018 she was awarded the honorary award of the Swedish Publishers' Association (Svenska Förläggareföreningen).

Web links

• Literature by and about Ilon Wikland in the catalog of the German National Library
• Ilon's wonderland in Haapsalu
• More information about Ilon Wikland at KinderundJugendmedien.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Roswitha Budeus-Budde: “This is what Astrid Lindgren's 'Ronja Robber's Daughter' should look like originally. But Ilon Wikland's draft was too delicate for the author. ”, In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , No. 24, 30./31. January 2016, p. 24. - Online: “Zu Zart.” SZ.de , January 29, 2016.
2. ↑ Cornelia Geißler: Astrid Lindgren illustrator Ilon Wikland Childhood in the head and in the heart. Berliner Zeitung , February 16, 2015, accessed on July 22, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Anna Zamolska: Exhibition Report: About table and benches. The unique world of images of Ilon Wikland. In: kinderundjugendmedien.de. Retrieved July 22, 2016 . 
4. ↑ Above the table and benches. The unique world of images of Ilon Wikland. International Youth Library at Blutenburg Castle, accessed on July 22, 2016 . 
5. ↑ Above the table and benches - the unique world of images from Ilon Wikland. Koeppenhaus, May 20, 2016, accessed on July 16, 2017 . 
6. ^ Exhibition opening: Ilon Wikland's unique world of images. Retrieved July 22, 2016 . 
7. ↑ Above the table and benches. The unique world of images of Ilon Wikland. In: nordbuzz.de. Retrieved November 7, 2016 . 
8. ↑ Eva-Maria Magel: How Lotta lost her ribbon. In: FAZ.net. May 21, 2017. Retrieved October 13, 2019 . 
9. ↑ Rebecca Haimi: Ilon Wikland tilldelas Svenska förläggareföreningens nya pris. SVT, November 22, 2018, accessed November 22, 2018 (Swedish).