The Englishman Keith Keith Houston's book The Great History of Books: Six Thousand Years of Evolution and Change outlines a clear history of book evolution from the four aspects of writing, printing, illustration and binding, and illustration is an important chapter, which shows the important value of illustration for books.
In Wu Wei's view, as an integral part of the book, "although the illustrations are attached to the text, they have relative independence and appreciation value." Over the years, Wu Wei has immersed himself in the world of illustration, and has sorted out the essence of foreign illustrations according to different themes. Selected Illustrations of Foreign Black and White is the sixth book in Wu Wei's series of illustrated books, and the "foreign" here is mainly limited to Europe and the United States; black and white means not dazzling with color.
As the saying goes, "the insider looks at the doorway", the illustration book is a way to read casually, but to go deep into it, there are several doorways, in the author's opinion, the doorway has at least three: one is to contrast with the original work, further deepen the understanding of the work; the second is to look at the painting technique, get aesthetic enjoyment; the third is to look at the elements contained in the illustrations and experience the cultural connotation. Watching the expression of the same famous work under the pen of different painters, just like watching a famous movie that is constantly remade, can always get different feelings from different actors' language, expressions, physical actions, etc.
It can be seen from the "Selected Illustrations of Foreign Black and White" that the works of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Rabelais, Hans Christian Andersen, Flaubert, Dickens, Goth and other literary figures are the target of the illustrators' concentrated efforts, which also creates their own different images, to paraphrase: "A thousand painters, there are a thousand don Quixotes." "Let's look at the two don Quixote illustrations selected from the book.
The first is of George W. Bush of England. Crook Shank's 1833 painting of don Quixote is preparing to wrestle with the lion out of the cage, and Sancho kneels on the lion cage to drive the lion out. This picture has a medium scene and a long-range view, and people, animals, and the environment form a dynamic aura. The second is of Arthur B. Lee of England. Boyd M. Horton's 1866 work takes a close-up view, with Don Quixote, Sancho, and Skinny Horse each with their own expressions. There are only a few environmental embellishments, which are intended to reveal the psychological state of the characters.
This book includes many works by the French illustrator Doré, but does not select his paintings of Don Quixote, and shows one here to see what doré's master and servant look like. The details of this illustration are richer, the two people and two animals have their own characteristics, the distant mountains are cloudy and dead trees, and they also have the charm of Chinese ink landscapes.
From the pen of don Quixote of the above three different painters, we read the protagonist's ignorant and fearless chivalry, the endless question of the meaning of life, and the cry of birth and entry. This is not only the painter's interpretation of Don Quixote, but also a tribute to Cervantes, and the reader will also read more about the connotation of the work and the question of life in the mutual verification of words and pictures.
When reading Wu Wei's last illustrated book, Selected Illustrations of Classic Fairy Tales, the author used the image of Aladdin and the Divine Lamp to analyze the Impression of China under the pen of Western illustrators. In the "Selected Illustrations of Foreign Black and White", the Danish Kay Nelson, Rennes M. Boole, Arthur B. Boyd M. Horton's several Aladdin illustrations still have their own styles and understandings, and the styles are very different, but whether it is Aladdin's braids, or the Chinese characters and Fushou patterns in the paintings, they all express the background of Aladdin from China. The last aladdin has an illustration on the edge of the cliff, the picture is gloomy, and it seems appropriate to put it in Lu Xun's "Diary of a Madman".
After reading Wu Wei's series of illustration works, while understanding the source of Western illustrations, he also deepened his understanding of Western literary masterpieces, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone. From this, I think of Chinese illustrations.
China's illustration creation has a long history, some opera and interpretation illustrations in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties have become classics and forever circulated, and in recent decades, there are also many illustrations by domestic painters in Chinese and foreign literary works, which add a lot of color to books. The four famous works ordered by Sisyphus in the People's Literature Publishing House have selected color historical illustrations, and the "Dream of the Red Chamber" painted by Sun Wen of the Qing Dynasty has been highly sought after in recent years, and the works of contemporary painters Liu Danzhai and Dai Dunbang in the Red Chamber are also valued. Jin Yong's royal painters Wang Sima and Jiang Yunxing were famous all over the world, making Jin Yong's chivalrous heroism jump on the paper. Modern and contemporary comic strips were once brilliant, but in comic strips, the picture is no longer an illustration concept, but a protagonist, and the text has become an "interlude".
It is expected that Wu Wei will have time to sort out the fine illustrations of domestic painters, create a series of domestic illustrations, and form an infinite scenery of Chinese and Western responses and twin peaks.