The purple book : symbolism & sensuality in contemporary art & illustration

225 Pages·2013·244.03 MB·English

by  Lewis

T H E
P U R P L E

T H E
P U R P L E
Symbolism & Sensuality in Contemporary Art & Illustration
Angus Hyland & Angharad Lewis
Laurence King Publishing

C O N T E N T S
Page 7 Pages 80–97 Page 147
F OREWORD WO RKS BY
Szamota’s Mistre ss
Angus Hyland Vania Zouravliov, Amelie Hegardt,
Tim Hon Hung Lee, Izzie Klingels, Stefan Grabinski
Page 9 Dan Hillier, Sam Wolfe Connelly
INTRODUCTION illustrated by Andrzej Klimowski
Angharad Lewis Page 99
JU LES J ULIEN Pages 156–173
Page 19 Interview & Portfolio WO RKS B Y
LAURA LAIN E Yuko Shimizu, Natalie Ratkovski,
Interview & Portfolio Page 107 Deanne Cheuk, Yuko Michishita,
An extract from Dan Hillier, Daisy Fletcher,
Page 25 Story of Kelly Thompson,
Makiko Sugawa, Soey Milk
Goblin Market

the Eye
Christina Rossetti Page 175
Georges Bataille MARTI NE JOHAN NA
illustrated by Laura Laine Interview & Portfolio
illustrated by Jules Julien
Pages 42–61 Page 183
WORKS BY Pages 116–135 An extract from
Laura Laine, Yuko Michishita, WO RKS BY
Ulysses
Miss Van, Deanne Cheuk, Izzie Klingels, Jules Julien,
Daisy Fletcher, Tran Nguyen, Conrad Yukari Terakado, Miss Van,
Roset, Tim Hon Hung Lee, Yuko Makiko Sugawa, Soey Milk, James Joyce
Shimizu, Izzie Klingels Sam Wolfe Connelly, Amelie Hegardt,
Jasper Goodall, Jesse Auersalo, illustrated by Martine Johanna
Page 63 Yuko Shimizu
VAN IA Pages 190–207
ZOURAVLIOV Page 137 WO RKS B Y
Interview & Portfolio ANDR ZEJ Soey Milk, Martine Johanna,
KLI MOWSKI Tran Nguyen, Conrad Roset,
Page 71 Interview & Portfolio Ëlodie Nadreau, Tim Hon Hung Lee,
Cho Kyuhyung, Yukari Terakado,
Eleonora
 Megan Pearce
Edgar Allan Poe
Page 209
illustrated by Vania Zouravliov BIOG RAPH IES

FOREWORD
When your dream
of perfect beauty comes true
Angus Hyland
‘Je te salue, ô très occulte, ô très profonde
Luxure, étoile triste au ciel pourpre du monde.’ – Albert Samain
‘Pink begat mauve begat purple begat violet.’ – Derek Jarman
If roses are red and violets are blue, then any fl ower that been credited with the idea of its yellow cover and thus its
lies chromatically in between the two must be considered name. While The Yellow Book is more a touchstone than a
one of the many variants of purple. Purple is an enigmatic direct ancestor, there is no doubt that it has inspired The
non-spectral colour; it is absent from Newton’s colour Purple Book’s form as a lavishly illustrated marriage of art
wheel, which moves directly from violet to red. There is and literature. Beneath the decorative detail inherent in
no such thing as the ‘wavelength of purple light’; it exists much of the work, there is a surrealist undercurrent that
only as a combination. Perhaps that is why this enigmatic weaves its way through these fantasies, connecting the
colour has such a shifty reputation: it is a chimera. Partly texts, whether symbolist or gothic. It is the theme of a
elitist, as in the priceless Tyrian, or imperial, purple which lucid and sensual dream, a vision of beauty imbued with
in antiquity was made from the crushed shells of thousands mortality and on the point of decay, a vision at one with
of purpura sea snails and was the vivid colour of the sails the dominant aesthetic of the Decadent Movement.
on Cleopatra’s barge, purple is also seen as artifi cial, most
notably in Mauveine, the fi rst industrialized aniline dye Many of the artists featured here share both a particular
created in the 1890s. The name mauve was fi rst coined aesthetic vision and a commitment to the hand-drawn
by Sir William Henry Perkin, the chemist who in 1856 image. It is as though the qualities of highly detailed and
created the dye for cloth. So popular was the colour with decorative graphic art imbue a deeper sensuous emotional
the late Victorians that the 1890s became known as the core. This is certainly true when one compares the work
Mauve Decade. Not entirely respectable, however, mauve in this book with the more immediate and ephemeral
(then much deeper in shade than our faded contemporary art forms that dominate our visual culture today. Such
understanding of it) was identifi ed with decadence, intensity results in a powerful fetishism – in the original
occultism and not unsurprisingly, artifi ciality. meaning of the term.
The themes of sensuality and symbolism explored within Published at a time when the anodyne and standardized
the art of The Purple Book have their origins in the period showcase of artwork has become something of an
leading up to the fi n de siècle and the last fl owering of the anachronism, The Purple Book looks back to a tradition
Aesthetic Movement retitled as the Decadent Movement. of the beautifully crafted publication; a book for book’s
The most notorious periodical of the 1890s was The Yellow sake (art for art’s sake in the decorative spirit of la belle
Book, a magazine whose literary content was as innovative époque). It is the only way forward for the printed book, as a
as its graphic design. Aubrey Beardsley, its fi rst art editor tangible and sensual object of beauty and desire – anything
and the most infl uential illustrator of his generation has else would be a waste of good material.
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I N T R O D U C T I O N
Angharad Lewis
It might be possible to imagine a time when the printed book is a rarity, an
anachronism, near obsolete, pursued only by collectors. The book you are
reading, however, celebrates the still living, breathing heart of the printed book
for its unique, enduring pleasures — as a tactile and intimate object, a place of
private reverie, of concentrated attention and as an unparalleled vehicle for the
transportation of the imagination.
The Purple Book (purple for the colour’s association with sensory
headiness, decadence, sexuality, mystery, faith and mortality) revisits the
intimate language and fl ights of imagination of writers known for deeply
sensual, almost hallucinatory storytelling, from Edgar Allan Poe to Georges
Bataille. These texts and extracts are paired with the work of contemporary
illustrators whose output is infl uenced by or still carries a fl avour of the
Symbolists, Decadents and Surrealists of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries — movements in art and literature that tapped the far reaches of
imagination and encouraged the intimate embrace between word and image,
poetry and picture-making.
Drawing as a medium has an immediacy that makes it a tool for
accessing the furthest parts of the human psyche, as the Surrealists discovered
through their experiments in automatic drawing and Andrzej Klimowski
discusses in his interview in this book (page 137). ‘Drawing is complete
invention, the closest to your imagination,’ he says, ‘it’s all coming completely
from the mind.’ Illustration, then, can make a valuable addition to the text of a
story, tuning in to the poetic imagery but also introducing moments, ideas and
gestures teased from between the words. Polymath and compulsive draftsman
Jean Cocteau recognised no boundaries between the use of words, outlines and
colours across the regions of literary and visual arts, describing drawing as
1 Introduction, Erotica: Drawings simply a ‘different way of tying up the lines’1.
by Jean Cocteau, Margaret Crossland, The immediacy and intimacy of drawing as a medium has long
Peter Owen Publishers, 2003 made it a powerful tool for exploring sexuality. Through print-making and
book illustration, drawings depicting physical intimacy and fl ights of erotic
imagination have liberated ideas about sexuality from the artist’s personal
sketchbook to wider — albeit sometimes esoteric — audiences.
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