Mario Grasso

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Mario Grasso (around 1988)

Mario Grasso (born September 12, 1941 in Milan ; † February 14, 2018 in Bettmeralp ) was a Swiss illustrator , designer and author . He also had Italian citizenship. Grasso works as an illustrator, primarily for picture and children's books.

Life

Mario Grasso had lived in Basel since 1950 and had lived on Bettmeralp (CH Oberwallis) near the Aletsch Glacier since 2013 . For four years he worked as a lithographer, at the same time he attended the University of Applied Sciences in Basel. Since 1969 he has worked as a freelance copywriter, illustrator, designer and author. Around 50 books illustrated by Mario Grasso have been published so far. Since the beginning of the millennium, the focus of his work has been on the illustration of classics of children's and youth literature.

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Characteristic for Mario Grasso's later illustration style are early childhood support from his mother and grandmother, influences from the Rudolf Steiner kindergarten and the Montessori school in Milan. The drawn picture stories by the illustrator Antonio Rubino appeared in the Corriere dei piccoli , the children's supplement to the well-known Italian daily Corriere della Sera . Here he gained inspiration for his later overall work, where he combined the entertaining with the playful. Moving to Basel at the age of eight and entering a German-language school provided impulses for entire groups of books and picture books to express the ambiguity and often funny sub-meaning of the language and certain terms in words and pictures. Life and work between two idioms and experimenting with playful folding, twisting and reversing effects expanded during the 1980s, especially in works for the Beltz & Gelberg , Weinheim, and Otto Maier , Ravensburg, conventional equipment of the Children's reading.

His work for adults, textile designs, porcelain design, postage stamps, playing cards, anamorphoses gold cups for Nestlé and furnishings for Niederegger- marzipan were also shaped by this tendency. In addition to translations of his picture and children's books, it was precisely these productions that were distributed worldwide. In stage sets, satirical cartoons (children's page of the stern magazine) and comics for daily newspapers, magazines, calendars and the conception for exhibitions, further fields of activity opened up for him. Commissions and work for UNICEF , UNESCO , WWF and for the brands and companies Fogal, Rosenthal and Porzellanfabrik Langenthal.

From the end of the 1980s to 2009, three board game books, translated into several languages, with richly illustrated game suggestions, both traditional and newly invented, were published. Experimental picture books and cookbooks put into pictures also found their way into the television programs of ARD , ZDF and Swiss television (DRS).

Venice seen differently from 1997 conveys a different perspective on the lagoon city, its history and its buildings in the form of often surreally painted collages and in continuation of the Commedia dell'arte staff .

style

Grasso preferred the solid, closed contour , which encompasses surfaces in mostly optimistic, harmonious colors. In accordance with the predominantly funny tendency of his image-text combination, he integrated elements of the popular comics into his illustrations through animal-human caricatures and bubble texts. Curvatures and overemphasized clarification of everyday items have shown the influence of Pop Art since the 1970s . As a "language gardener" and "word-picture magician" he illustrated the infinite variations of the kaleidoscope . Beyond the common book format, they were a suitable medium for monumental exterior design. In 1995, on the subject As Far as the Eye Can See - the History of Optical Telegraphy for the Frankfurt Museum for Post and Communication, a 14-meter-long picture story was created on 18 picture panels including a large telegraph man on the exhibition tower. Similar tendencies to enlarge comical figures also characterize the panels on the history of marzipan, which were created in 1999 for a museum of the Niederegger company in Lübeck.

Works

Texts and pictures by Mario Grasso

  • 1975 The story of the hunter, Jo Fink Verlag, Basel.
  • 1976 Metamorfosia, Sphinx Verlag, Basel.
  • 1980 Braunbär family, SJW, Zurich.
  • 1982 Mario Grasso's screenplay book, Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim.
  • 1983 birthday party, Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim.
  • 1983 The clever bear, Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim.
  • 1983 Surprises, Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim.
  • 1983 Folded cartoons, Otto Maier Verlag, Ravensburg.
  • 1985 Knick pictures from the surprise bag Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim.
  • 1985 Mimmi and Tommi, Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim.
  • 1986 Today the Tango Bear, Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim dances .
  • 1987 What simmering in the pot? Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim.
  • 1988 Mario Grassos Wörterschatz, Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim.
  • 1991 Drehwurm Circus, Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim.
  • 1997 Venice - seen differently, Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
  • 1997 Mario Grasso's game book for the whole family, Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
  • 2001 Mario Grasso's cat book, Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
  • 2003 The ball is not a ball, Lappan Verlag, Oldenburg.
  • 2008 Let's go, Lappan Verlag Oldenburg.

Selection of the most recently illustrated works

License issues

  • Mario Grasso's game book for the whole family : Poland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Czech Republic.
  • The most beautiful stories from One Thousand and One Nights : Korea, Poland, China.
  • Let's go : Korea.

Awards

  • 1982 Troisdorf Picture Book Prize .
  • 1983 Book Art Foundation , Frankfurt am Main. "The most beautiful German books 1983" for folded cartoons .
  • 1986 Mimmi and Tommi . Best game book of the year (Germany).
  • 1987 Honor list of the IBBY (THE INTERNATIONAL BOARD ON BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE), a worldwide selection of the best examples of contemporary children's and youth literature for Today the tango bear dances .
  • 1991 Book Art Foundation, Frankfurt am Main. "The most beautiful German books 1991" for the Drehwurm circus .
  • 1998 The best 7 books for young readers (Deutschlandfunk / Focus) for Venice - seen differently .

Exhibitions

  • 1989 ART FAIR London
  • 1989 Tokyo, Asian Cultural Center of UNESCO
  • 1989 ART FAIR Los Angeles
  • 1997 Carzaniga & Ueker Gallery, Basel
  • 2001 Cultural Office Cologne, Italian Cultural Institute
  • 2003 Culture Office Cologne, Moltkerei workshop
  • 2005 Cultural Office Cologne, Mülheim City Library
  • 2006 Oldenburg Cultural Office, Artothek
  • 2006/2007 Museum of Cultures, Basel

literature

  • 1983 Lexicon of Swiss Picture Book Illustrators 1900-1980, Desertina Verlag, Disentis.
  • 1991 list of artists in Switzerland. Swiss Institute for Art Research, Huber Frauenfeld publishing house.
  • 1998 Writing and illustrating for children. The current picture book creation in Switzerland, Chronos Verlag, Zurich.
  • 2002 game picture books. From the SMCA toy collection. The Hildegard Krahé Collection, Salzburg Museum Carolino Augusteum
  • 1992/2001 The playful world of Mario Grasso. Art catalog, Reinhardt Druck, Basel
  • Christa Spatz: Die ververtte Welt, Badische Zeitung, September 8, 1986
  • Anna Katharina Ulrich: A treasure trove of games with pictures, texts and numbers. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 24./25. October 1987
  • Heinrich Pleticha : Clever language games. Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 13, 1989
  • Carlo Bernasconi: Language gardener Grasso. Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel, September 3, 1991, pp. 2866–2867
  • Piero Zanotto: Quella Venezia vista diversamente. Il Gazzettino , Venezia 5th November 1997
  • Carole Schneuwly: Books, Postage Stamps and Bopla! Dishes. Freiburg News, January 13, 2007
  • Dominik Wunderlin, Museum of Cultures: Side glances into the playful world of Mario Grasso. A retrospective of the work of the Basel visual and verbal artist on the occasion of the exhibition "König, Katz und Bär" from November 10, 2006 to March 25, 2007.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mario Grasso obituary in todeshabenportal.ch Retrieved on March 18, 2018
  2. ↑ Christa Spatz: The language gardener. Visit to the children's book author Mario Grasso. Frankfurter Rundschau, January 14, 1986
  3. ↑ Michael Lang: The magician Mario. , Orella 9/1995, pp. 46-49
personal data
SURNAME Grasso, Mario
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss illustrator and author
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 2018
Place of death Bettmeralp