Wolf Erlbruch

Wolf Erlbruch (30 June 1948 – 11 December 2022) was a German illustrator and writer of children's books, who became professor at several universities. He combined various techniques for the artwork in his books, including cutting and pasting, drawing, and painting. His style was sometimes surrealist and is widely copied inside and outside Germany. Some of his storybooks have challenging themes such as death and the meaning of life. They won many awards, including the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1993 and 2003. Erlbruch received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2006 for his "lasting contribution" as a children's illustrator. In 2017, he was the first German to win the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

Wolf Erlbruch
Born(1948-06-30)30 June 1948
Wuppertal, Allied-occupied Germany
Died11 December 2022(2022-12-11) (aged 74)
Wuppertal, Germany
EducationFolkwang Hochschule
Occupations
  • Illustrator and writer of children's books
  • Academic teacher
Organizations
Awards

Life

Erlbruch was born in Wuppertal on 30 June 1948.[1] His father was a textile technician. As a child, the boy preferred drawing to playing.[2] Erlbruch studied graphic design at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen from 1967 to 1974.[3] As a student he worked in advertising,[3] and also worked as an illustrator for magazines such as Stern and Esquire. His first assignment as an illustrator of children's books came in 1985, when he was asked by the Wuppertal publisher Peter Hammer to illustrate Der Adler, der nicht fliegen wollte by James Aggrey;[3] Erlbruch's son Leonard had just been born, and Erlbruch wanted him to be able to say, "Look, my papa made a children's book." From then on, he both illustrated and wrote many books.[4]

Erlbruch taught as a professor of illustration at the Fachhochschule Düsseldorf from 1990 to 1997, then from 1997 as a professor in the department of architecture, design and art of the University of Wuppertal, and from 2009 to 2011 as a professor of illustration at the Folkwang University of the Arts.[3]

Erlbruch died in Wuppertal on 11 December 2022 at age 74.[1][3][5]

Style

Erlbruch tackled many adult topics in children's books, though he was not always fond of being characterized as an author for children.[4] Some of his books have autobiographical notes, such as Leonard (a "delightfully eccentric tale"[6]), a book partly inspired by his then six-year-old son Leonard (now an illustrator himself). Many of the characters in his books, such as the mole in The Story of the Little Mole Who Went in Search of Whodunit (also known in English as The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business), have little round black glasses, similar to those worn by Erlbruch himself.[4] He was praised for the original and surreal quality of his work.[7] According to Silke Schnettler, writing in the German newspaper Die Welt, the "Erlbruch-style", whose main characters are skewed and sometimes disproportionate but nonetheless recognizable, has become widely imitated inside and outside Germany.[8]

Death is a recurring topic in Erlbruch's books. Duck, Death and the Tulip (2008) features a duck who becomes friends with Death, and in Ein Himmel für den kleinen Bären (A heaven for the little bear) a bear cub tries to find his recently deceased grandfather in bear heaven.[4]

The moral of his own stories, as Schnettler in 2003 reported Erlbruch saying, is that "people should look at themselves from a distance and tolerate what is unique, strange, and sometimes not so pretty about themselves – in other words their peculiarities. This is what Erlbruch considers to be self-awareness."[8]

Illustrations

Many of Erlbruch's illustrations were made using mixed media and collage.[8] For The Story of the Little Mole, for instance, he drew the characters on brown wrapping paper, and pasted them on white paper.[9]

Critical reception

The Guardian called Duck, Death and the Tulip (2009), about a duck who finds herself being followed by and then becoming acquainted with death, an "outstanding book": "There is something infinitely tender in the way Death strokes her ruffled feathers into place, lifts her body and places it gently in the river, watching as she drifts off into the distance."[10]

Erlbruch's illustrations for Die fürchterlichen Fünf (translated into English as The Fearsome Five) were adapted for the stage by the Landestheater Tübingen, a theatre in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.[11]

Awards and legacy

In 2003, Erlbruch received the Gutenberg Award of the City of Leipzig for his contribution to the book arts,[4] a cultural award of his native city Wuppertal, and a special Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for his body of work as illustrator.[4] The biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award conferred by the International Board on Books for Young People is the highest recognition available to a writer or illustrator of children's books. Erlbuch received the illustration award in 2006 for his "lasting contribution" as a children's illustrator.[12] In 2017, he became the first German to win the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.[13]

In 2004, the Erlbruch family started the Wolf Erlbruch Foundation.[19] Its purpose is to act as a custodian for Erlbruch's work, and the money awarded for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award goes toward that purpose.[20]

Works

Erlbruch's works include:[13][21]

As writer
  • Erlbruch, Wolf (1991). Leonard. Wuppertal: Peter Hammer Verlag. ISBN 9783872944672.
  • Erlbruch, Wolf (1992). Das Bärenwunder. Wuppertal: Peter Hammer Verlag. ISBN 9783872944931.
  • Erlbruch, Wolf (1997). Mrs. Meyer the Bird. Orchard. ISBN 978-0-531-30017-6.[22]
  • Erlbruch, Wolf (1999). 's Nachts. Wuppertal: Peter Hammer Verlag. ISBN 978-3-87294-834-2. Translated into Dutch for the 1999 Kinderboekenweek,[23] Norwegian.[24]
  • Moritz, Karl Philipp; Wolf Erlbruch (2001). Das Neue ABC-Buch. Kunstmann. ISBN 9783888973321.
  • Erlbruch, Wolf (2005). The Big Question. Europa. ISBN 978-1-933372-03-7.
  • Erlbruch, Wolf (2006). The Miracle of the Bears. Michael Reynolds (trans.). Europa. ISBN 978-1-933372-21-1.
  • Erlbruch, Wolf (2008). Duck, Death and the Tulip. Gecko Press. ISBN 978-1-877467-17-2.[25]
  • Erlbruch, Wolf (2009). The Fearsome Five. Gecko Press. ISBN 9781877467233.
  • Erlbruch, Wolf (2015). The King and the Sea. Gecko Press. ISBN 9781927271803.[26]

As illustrator
  • Aggrey, James (1985). Der Adler der nicht fliegen wollte, translated by Alfons Michael Dauer. Jugenddienst-Verlag, Wuppertal, ISBN 3-7795-7390-3.
  • Dayre, Valérie (1996). Die Menschenfresserin. Peter Hammer Verlag.[27]
  • Belli, Gioconda (2006). The Butterfly Workshop. Europa. ISBN 978-1-933372-12-9.[28]
  • Chidgey, Catherine (2009). The Fearsome Five. Gecko. ISBN 978-1-877467-23-3.
  • Holzwarth, Werner (2001). The Story of the Little Mole Who Went in Search of Whodunit. Chrysalis. ISBN 978-1-85602-440-2.[29][30]
  • Verroen, Dolf (2003). Ein Himmel für den kleinen Bären. Hanser. ISBN 978-3-446-20294-8. Translated into Dutch.[31]
  • Hopkins, Lee Bennett (2005). Oh, No! Where Are My Pants? and Other Disasters: Poems. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-688-17860-4.[32][33]
  • Moeyaert, Bart (2003). De Schepping. Querido. ISBN 90-451-0045-2. Translated into German, French, Korean, Portuguese, Polish, Spanish, Italian
  • Moeyaert, Bart (2010). Het Paradijs. Querido. ISBN 9789045111124. Translated into Spanish
  • Moeyaert, Bart (2006). Olek schoot een beer. Querido. ISBN 90-451-0330-3. Translated into German, French, Korean, Spanish
  • Lavie, Oren (2014). Der Bär, der nicht da war. Kunstmann. ISBN 978-38-889-7970-5.

References
  1. Illustrator Wolf Erlbruch gestorben (in German) Thüringische Landeszeitung 12 December 2022
  2. Lenz, Susanne (12 December 2022). "Zum Tod von Wolf Erlbruch: Das Kind, das nicht spielte, sondern zeichnete". Frankfurter Rundschau (in German). Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  3. Kinderbuchillustrator Wolf Erlbruch ist tot (in German) Der Spiegel 12 December 2022
  4. Schnettler, Silke (1 February 2000). "Von Maulwürfen und Menschen: Ver-Rückt sein ist gut: Ein Besuch beim Kinderbuchzeichner und -autor Wolf Erlbruch". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 3 January 2010.
  5. Brown, Lauren (14 December 2022). "Wolf Erlbruch, illustrator of The Story of the Little Mole, dies aged 74". The Bookseller. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  6. "Book Review Holiday Special Section". Los Angeles Times. 3 December 1995. p. 16.
  7. Catinchi, Philippe-Jean; Florence Noiville (16 March 2001). "Des images secrètes et riches de sens caché". Le Monde (in French).
  8. Schnettler, Silke (21 March 2003). "Der Vater des kleinen Maulwurfs: Buchmesse feiert den Zeichner Wolf Erlbruch". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  9. Duin, Lieke van (16 April 1997). "Zwaarte en lichtheid bij Wolf Erlbruch". Trouw (in Dutch). Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  10. Rosoff, Meg (19 December 2009). "Duck, Death and the Tulip by Wolf Erlbruch". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 January 2010.
  11. Jahnke, Manfred (7 May 1997). "Keine Zeit für Pausen: Eine Bilanz des Kinder- und Jugendtheatertreffen in Berlin". Stuttgarter Zeitung (in German).
  12. "Hans Christian Andersen Awards 2006". International Board on Books for Young People. Retrieved 3 January 2010.
  13. Platthaus, Andreas (5 April 2017). "Astrid-Lindgren-Preis: Aus dem kleinen feinen Reingarnichts". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  14. Blankendaal, Stijntje (7 October 1999). "Eindelijk werd ik zelf bijziend". Trouw (in Dutch). Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  15. "Deutschsprachige Kinder- und Jugendliteratur – Autoren und Illustratoren – Wolf Erlbruch". Goethe Institute. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  16. "Sonderpreisträger von 1991 bis 2008". Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  17. "Wuppertals Kulturpreis an Illustrator Prof. Wolf Erlbruch". uni-protokolle. 9 December 2003. Retrieved 5 January 2010.
  18. "Wolf Erlbruch is the 2017 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award laureate – ALMA". alma.se. 2 April 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  19. "Wolf-Erlbruch-Stiftung" (in German). Ministerium des Innern des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  20. Platthaus, Andreas (12 December 2022). "Zum Tod von Wolf Erlbruch: Der Bilderbuchkünstler" (in German). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  21. Works by Erlbruch (in German) Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis
  22. "Children's Books; Bookshelf". The New York Times. 12 October 1997. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  23. Nauta, Hans (6 October 1999). "De Indianen slapen, dus slapen de cowboys ook". Trouw (in Dutch). Retrieved 3 January 2010.
  24. Moe Mette (18 March 2004). "Rev. of Wolf Erlbruch, Om Natta, trans. by Anne Horn". Barnebokkritikk. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  25. "Duck, Death and the Tulip | Gecko Press". geckopress.com. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  26. "The King and the Sea | Gecko Press". geckopress.com. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  27. "Die besten 7 Kinderbücher für junge Leser". Focus (in German). August 1996. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  28. Bolle, Sonja (3 September 2006). "Kids read the darnedest things, After school or before bed, any time is the right time for reading new stories or classics to your children". Newsday. p. C23.
  29. McDonald, Maggie (19 November 1994). "And now for children's hour ..." New Scientist. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  30. "So where is the bunny?". The Daily Telegraph. 7 April 2001. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  31. Boer, Peter de (29 March 2003). "Kunnen jullie toevallig een beer gebruiken?". Trouw (in Dutch). Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  32. Fenly, Leigh (4 September 2005). "A little bit o' rhyme will get you through the day". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  33. Wergeland, Kari (2 April 2005). "A few poets know it: how to write verse that connects with kids". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
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