Whats happening in the arts and design world

Alphabet of Illustrators

This alphabet of illustrators has been provided by the Culture Archive based in Brighton and offers digital images of historical illustrations. Clicking on any name provides high quality images of scans from books and publications of the illustrator's work. Illustrations include pictures from the fairytales of Hans Christian Anderson, as well as work by the artist Walter Crane, Edward Bawden's pamphlet for Fortnum and Mason and the work of Fougasse, and many more.
http://www.fulltable.com/VTS/aoi/


Babar The Elephant
The Morgan Library and Museum in New York have launched an online facsimile of original sketches for Jean de Brunhoff's classic children's character Babar The Elephant.
This digital facsimile presents every page of a small, delicate maquette that Jean de Brunhoff created in 1930 or 1931 as he drafted the first book in the Babar series. The maquette, an extraordinary handmade booklet complete with cover and endpapers, text and illustrations, is the prototype for Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant.
http://www.themorgan.org/collections/swf/exhibOnline.asp?id=900

Art and Design

Czech Book Covers
The Smithsonian Institution Libraries website has provided this resource on Czech book covers of the 1920s and 1930s, which is based on the collection in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library. The overview introduces Czech book design which sprang from the journals published by the Devetsil Artistic Union. The union was a highly influential group of avant-garde poets, writers, artists and designers who were active from 1920 to 1931. The collection can be viewed by style - constructivism, poetism, surrealism or social realism; or by book designer/typographer/illustrator, including work by Karel Bedrna,Vrastislav Hugo Brunner, Gustave Dore and Adolf Hoffmeister. All these books can also be viewed by author or by date of publication. A select bibliography is also provided.
Link: http://www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/czechbooks/

Dali and Film
This website features the online exhibition 'Dalí: Painting and Film', also showing at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) from 29th June until 15th September 2008. Bringing together over a hundred paintings, photographs, drawings and films by Salvador Dalí, the exhibition explores the role of cinema in his work, and covers his collaborations with filmmakers including Luis Buñuel, Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney.
Link: http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/dali/

Graphic Design Timeline
The Graphic design timeline is an interactive guide which acts as an accompaniment to the fourth edition of "Meggs' History of Graphic Design", by Philip P. Meggs and Alston W. Purvis. Using flash technology the site provides a chronological history of graphic design, beginning in the year 15,000 BC and the Lascaux cave paintings, and covering the invention of writing, illuminated manuscripts, the advent of printing, the industrial revolution, the Arts and Crafts Movement, right up until the present day to the digital revolution and beyond.
Link: http://www.graphicdesigntimeline.net/