Drawing the Line – Who Cares About Illustration?
Thomas Girst
It’s rather
curious that in the land of George Grosz and John Heartfield, illustration never
took hold in newspapers after World War II. Compared to American magazines and
papers, German press publications seldom provide more than a single sketchy drawing
as daily artistic political commentary. Oftentimes just it is a witless satire
gone stale, coming from circa half a dozen illustrators who’ve been holding
on to their exposed position for decades. In most cases, however, photography
or no image at all is the usual way of expression. And in the rare event of illustrations
commissioned to accompany an article or editorial, their imagery never exceeds
what can be found within the text. On the contrary, the trained American eye
of readers of the New Yorker or the New York Times looks for the subtle way by
which an illustration comments upon or exceeds the meaning of the written text.
There are exceptions,
of course, and the above paragraph is almost entirely proven wrong by an intimate
exhibition staged at New York University’s Deutsches Haus. “Neue Illustration:
The Book and Poster Art of 11 German Illustrators” was excellently curated
and organized by Lisa Zeitz, a German art historian living in New York. Involving
the staircase and every nook and cranny of the two-floor exhibition space, colorful
images pop up no matter where you turn your head. All of the youngish illustrators
represented have at least once collaborated with Armin Abmeier, the Munich-based,
60+ year old passionate publisher and devoted fan of the drawn image. His series
of “Tolle Hefte” (or amazing booklets) has produced instant collectibles,
lavishly illustrated texts from Goethe to T.C. Boyle. The exhibition is a mini-homage
to Abmeier, presenting renown illustrators like Anke Feuchtenberger and Atak,
Christoph Niemann and Henning Wagenbreth. One only wishes that they would get
more exposure in their home country instead of being confined to small-press
publishing. Illustration, especially when given space to breathe and independent
of commercial concerns, can at best be right on par with great achievements within
the world fine arts.
Leaving the show
at the Deutsche Haus, one is left to wonder whether illustrators consider themselves
to be artists. Assumingly – within a pluralistic universe with ever expanding
definitions of what constitutes art – most illustrators surely do. And just like
ad agency employees writing copy might work on their novels at night or MTV video
directors dream about feature length film projects, many illustrators paint on
the side, creating works they dare dream to see at gallery walls. Nothing wrong
with that, of course. Yet an illustrator per definition works in the applied
arts, their work is assigned to them, with a deadline attached. In other words,
they are wanted – a luxury most artists have to do without. It is these
different world, one of big publishers and business, the other comprised of galleries
and museums, that only the very few have mastered both. But as these fields infiltrate
each other at a steady rate, a crossover might become inevitable.
