Monika Beisner

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Monika Beisner (* 1942 in Hamburg ) is a German artist and book illustrator.

Life

Monika Beisner studied painting at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig (HBK) and - with a scholarship from the DAAD - at the Slade School of Fine Art , London and at the Hochschule der Künste (HDK), Berlin. A Fulbright scholarship enabled her to study in New York. Since 1970 she has lived as a freelance artist in London, Ratzeburg and Gozo (Malta).

Works

Beisner became known as an illustrator of numerous bibliophile children's books that appeared in Denmark, England, Finland, France, Italy, Korea, Japan, Spain and the USA, among others. They fascinated children and adults alike - in some cases to this day. Her books The Heavenly Zoo (1979) and Fabulous Beasts (1981) were created in collaboration with the American writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Alison Lurie . Beisner's book Fantastic Toys (German: Wunderlicher Spielzeug-Katalog , 1973), first published in English in 1975, was selected by New York Review Books in early 2019 and re-published in The New York Review Children's Collection .

In an interview with the Harvard professor Stephen and Stephanie Burt , Anglist and transgender activist in The Paris Review , born 1973 in Germany, but grew up in England American poet and writer has Matthea Harvey Beisners Fantastic Toys in September 2014 as the earliest inspiration designated for their own artistic development. When asked which book one should read in order to understand Harvey's lyrical work, she replied: "Fantastic Toys, by Monika Beisner. A book I read over and over as a child. It offers wonders like a heated sheep sledge and winged jumping boots. Before four years ago I discovered the reason why we had this magical book - my mother had gone to elementary school with Monika. For me it was as if she had gone to school with Marilyn Monroe and had never mentioned it. " ("Fantastic Toys, by Monika Beisner. A book I read over and over again as a child. It features such wonders as a heated sheep toboggan and winged jumping boots. Four years ago, I discovered the reason we had that magical book - my mother had gone to elementary school with Monika. For me, it was as if she'd gone to school with Marilyn Monroe and never mentioned it. ")

Beisner's main artistic work is the meticulous illustration of all 100 cantos of the Divine Comedy by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri , which she made from 1992 to 1999. Even Botticelli , William Blake , Gustave Doré and Salvador Dalí have the Divine Comedy illustrated, but Beisner is the first woman to illustrate this important work has taken the world literature. She translated Dante's 100 chants into pictures as detailed and as literally as possible, painted with egg tempera paints. All 100 pictures are in the collection of the Italian collector Livio Ambrogio.

The British writer and cultural historian Marina Warner wrote of Beisner's Dante pictures in 2007: “It took her seven years to make the hundred miniatures, and this achievement is stunning. The present volume reproduces her work in full size ... without visible lines or strokes, but as a pure glow of dense color, applied with the smallest brushes made up of half a dozen sable hairs. .... Monika Beisner has remained true to Dante's text by reproducing the gesture and position as described in the poem as well as his unsurpassed precision of spatial, geographical and temporal coordinates. "(" The hundred miniatures took her seven years to complete and the achievement is dazzling. The present volume reproduces her work full-size,… with no strokes or drawing visible, but a pure glow of dense color, applied with brushes so small they consist of a half-dozen sable hairs.… Monika Beisner has been scrupulously loyal to Dante's text, rendering gesture and position as described in the poem as well as its unsurpassed precision of spatial, geographical and temporal coordinates. ")

After completing her illustration of the Divine Comedy , Beisner turned to Ovid's Metamorphoses . She is currently working on the illustration of the Gilgamesh epic .

Dante's "Divine Comedy"

  • Dante Alighieri: The Divine Comedy. 3 volumes in German by Karl Vossler. With colored illustrations by Monika Beisner. 2nd Edition. Faber & Faber, Leipzig 2002, ISBN 3-932545-66-4 .
  • Dante Alighieri: The Divine Comedy. 3 volumes in German by Karl Vossler. With colored illustrations by Monika Beisner. Special edition with three half-parchment volumes in a half-parchment slipcase. Faber & Faber, Leipzig 2002, ISBN 3-932545-78-8 .
  • Dante Alighieri: Commedia. Edizione Privata. Illustrata da Monika Beisner. Stamperia Valdonega, Verona 2005.
  • Dante Alighieri: Comedy. Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso. Translated by Robert and Jean Hollander, illustrated by Monika Beisner. Edizioni Valdonega, Verona 2007.

Ovid's "Metamorphoses"

  • Metamorphoses. A Portfolio of 36 Giclee Prints Printed by Pratt Contemporary, England 2010.

Children's books

  • The Thumbtown Toad. Prentice Hall, USA 1971, ISBN 0-13-920603-5 .
  • Whimsical toy catalog. Broschek, Hamburg 1973, ISBN 3-87102-044-3 .
  • Fantastic toys. Follet, Chicago 1975, ISBN 0-695-40504-7 .
  • The birthday trip. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1976, ISBN 3-458-05758-7 .
  • Ramses in Rio Moto. JM Dent, London 1977, ISBN 0-460-06850-4 .
  • The address book for children. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-458-31994-8 .
  • An Address Book with riddles, rhymes, tales and tongue-twisters. Eel Pie Publishing, London 1978, ISBN 0-906008-43-3 .
  • Le livre de tous mes amis. Mon premier carnet d'adresses. Selected poems by Jean Georges. Gallimard, Paris 1978.
  • The star picture book. With pictures and old legends. An island picture book. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-458-05675-0 .
  • A Folding Alphabet Book. Farrar Straus Giroux, New York 1979, ISBN 0-374-32420-4 .
  • The Heavenly Zoo. Text by Alison Lurie. Farrar Straus Giroux, New York 1979, ISBN 0-529-05593-7 .
  • Fabulous beasts. Text by Alison Lurie. Jonathan Cape, London 1981, ISBN 0-224-01971-6 .
  • Book of Riddles. Jonathan Cape, London 1983, ISBN 0-224-02091-9 .
  • Secret Spells and Curious Charms. Jonathan Cape, London 1985, ISBN 0-224-02282-2 .
  • Wrong world. An island picture book. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-458-14604-0 .
  • Catch that Cat. Faber and Faber, London 1990, ISBN 0-571-14170-6 .
  • El mundo a revés . Lumen, Barcelona 1991, ISBN 84-264-3647-1 .
  • Of trees that fly and speak. Old and new tree fairy tales. Carl Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-446-16377-8 .
  • Gold leaf and silver root. Old and new tree fairy tales from all over the world. Sanssouci, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-7254-1129-8 .
  • Les cent plus belles devinettes. Gallimard, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-07-056192-5 .
  • Fantastic toys. A catalog. The New York Review Children's Collection, New York 2019, ISBN 978-1-68137-311-9 .

Exhibitions

Literature / newspaper articles

  • Belinda Hunt: Monika Beisner's Illuminations for the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. In: Temendos Academy Review 21, 2018, pp. 111–112.
  • Dante - Poeta e Italiano. Salerno Editrice, Roma 2011.
  • Chiara Nicolini: La mano di Monika Beisner rilegge la “Commedia”. Un'illustratrice contemporanea dal gusto quasi medioevale. In: La Biblioteca di via Senato - Milano. Anno II, N. 10/18, 2010, pp. 45-53.
  • Marina Warner: Monika Beisner: Illuminating Stories. In: Dante Alighieri: Comedy. Vol. 3: Paradiso. Translated by Robert and Jean Hollander, illustrated by Monika Beisner. Edizioni Valdonega, Verona 2007, pp. 228-235.
  • Peter S. Hawkins: Dante. A brief history. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford 2006.
  • Ronald de Rooy (Ed.): Divine Comedies for the New Millennium. Recent Dante Translations in America and the Netherlands. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2003.
  • Arnd Brummer: Dante's Divine Comedy. In: Chrismon plus, magazine 09/2001.
  • Johannes Wendland: Seven years from hell to paradise. In: Chrismon plus, magazine 09/2001.
  • Wolfram Vogel: Of trees in pictures. Monika Beisner's fascinating book illumination. In: Südkurier / weekend courier. 8/9 July 1995, pp. 6-7.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ New York Review Books: Fantastic Toys [1]
  2. ↑ Stephen Burt, "Mermaid Convention: An Interview with Matthea Harvey". In: The Paris Review, 2.9.2014 [2]
  3. ↑ a b Cambridge University Library - Reader's Newsletter No. January 32, 2006 ( Memento of the original from November 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lib.cam.ac.uk
  4. ^ Marina Warner: Monika Beisner: Illuminating Stories. In: Dante: The Divine Comedy. Vol. 3: Paradiso. Translated by Robert and Jean Hollander, Illustrated by Monika Beisner. Edizioni Valdonega, Verona 2007, pp. 228-235.
  5. ↑ In 2010 "Metamorphoses" was published. A Portfolio of 36 Giclée Prints Printed by Peter Notton at Pratt Contemporary, Ightham, Sevenoaks / Kent 2010.
  6. ↑ [3]
  7. ↑ Dante's Paradiso read in 9 languages ​​with Monika Beisner's projected images of Dante's Paradiso.
  8. ↑ [4]
  9. ↑ Illustrations for Ovid and Dante.
  10. ↑ [5]
  11. ^ Dante in the Palazzo Incontro 2011
  12. ↑ Provincia di Roma ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.provincia.roma.it
  13. ↑ Italian Cultural Institute Malta 2008 ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.um.edu.mt
  14. ↑ Honorary doctorate to Benigni
  15. ↑ HishioArts Katsuyama, Japan 2006
  16. ^ Culture 24-2002
personal data
SURNAME Beisner, Monika
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist and book illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg