JOHN BURNINGHAM AT THE FLEMING COLLECTION, LONDON

The first childrens' book, Borka

THE FLEMING COLLECTION EXHIBITION, JOHN BURNINGHAM: AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNEY

Illustration, not on view at this show

John Burningham's illustration work is on show at the Fleming Collection's premises  at 13 Berkeley Street, Mayfair, London until 22 December 2011.

I visited this week.  Do go, you will be delighted and inspired!  There is a large collection of his original art work.  There are finished pages from the many books, and information about his life.

John Burningham's books were part of my children's life when they were small and I really enjoyed them too.  

ROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS

It is great to be able to read more about this interesting man.  I did not realize that he had made a Round the World trip in the steps of that famous book, Round the World in Eight Days, by Jules Verne, and there are a few of his sketches on view, of Mexico City for instance.

The paintings and drawings are arranged over two floors, and pride of place is given to six very large works which I cannot see reproduced on the web anywhere so are probably new.  They are very large prints of photographs of doorways and windows in France, on which John Burningham has painted a figure, in one a buxom girl empties a pot of cooking water over the balcony, in another a black-clothed figure is playing a grand piano.  These are very exciting works, and made me think of ways I can develop my own art.

WORK STARTED IN THE 1950s

The start of the exhibition shows sketches made in Govan, Glasgow during the 1950s and covers travel journals, roughs, illustration work for the famous childrens' books, which he also wrote, and originals for Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang by Ian Fleming (in stark black and white in the main).  

LONDON TRANSPORT MUSEUM SHOWS BURNINGHAM'S POSTERS

Also there are collages, and travel posters for the Underground.  The posters are on show in the London Transport Museum,  which I have not yet seen.

SEASIDE ARCHITECTURE

Unusual, there is a large pebble with a painting of a seaside pier painted on it.  This image was used on the cover of a journal from the RIBA on Seaside Architecture.

I noticed several books which I have not seen before, one called The Time of Your Life and one called When We Were Young.  

RUG AND TABLE LAMP

This work is of a wide spectrum, and as well as the pebble and the photographs with painting on them, there is a large rug on the wall, showing some jockeys in bright colours, and there is a big table lamp with little images of people, which presumably springs to life when it is illuminated.

JOHN BURNINGHAM:  AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNEY

The book accompanying this exhibition was a big expensive for me, unfortunately, so I did not buy it.

LUNCH TIME TALKS AT 1.10 PM

John Burningham is giving two lunchtime talks at the gallery, on Thursday 10 November and on Thursday, 1 December.  I believe you have to pay, possibly £10.  The talks are from 1.10 to 1.30 pm

THE FLEMING COLLECTION

Link to the Gallery

TOP EXHIBITION IN LONDON - JOHN BURNINGHAM

JOHN BURNINGHAM - ARTIST ILLUSTRATOR

  Racing Results © John Burningham

The Fleming Collection in Berkeley Street, London, W1J 8DU is having a show of this illustrator's work, starting Tuesday, 13 September to 22 December 2011.

The picture above I have copied from the Fleming Collection website, and I look forward to seeing the collection of his work, reviewed by Jackie Wullschlager in the Financial Times.  He is one of my favourite book illustrators and his work brings back good memories of reading and looking at the books with my children.  Unfortunately my books are well worn and battered now!  Here is a link to the Fleming Collection website 

The Fleming Collection, London

It should be a fascinating show, as it includes London Transport posters, and working drawings.

At the same time there is a special display of his posters at the London Transport Museum, in Covent Garden, London.  This runs from 9 September to 1 December.

London Transport Museum John Burningham exhibition

From this link you can see there is a competition using Flickr Groups for photographs or art work entitled 'Children's London', and a book signing to take place on 26 November at the Museum.

I love this depicition of horse racing!  It looks as if it is done with gouache.