Picture This: the Artist as Illustrator

This book was produced in parallel to the research for an exhibition with the same title I curated for the Lethaby Gallery. It examines the fine illustration work that was done in Britain in the 20th Century, focusing particularly on the influence of key illustrators directly connected to Central Saint Martins. Initial research for the book made it evident that modern illustration in Britain and its international influence had many significant points of contact with the traditions established through the Central School, Saint Martins and later through CSM. As editor, I commissioned essays which examined and detailed this influence on different areas of illustration: children's books, fashion illustration, comics and cartoons, 'The Radio Times', book jackets, The Folio Society and modern publicity; essay authors included Roger Sabin, Paul Rennie, and Alan Powers.

My own introductory essay, 'A Century of Creativity', concentrated on the particular influence of different individual teachers, such as Bernard Meninsky and John Farleigh and the tradition in which they were working. A final essay, 'All Change', put the subject into its contemporary context through illustrators like Jason Brooks, Aude Van Ryn and Ann Magill.

The exhibition provided an additional context for the book, with over 200 exhibits.

Sylvia Backemeyer

Research Interests

History of Central School of Arts and Crafts/Design, Central Saint Martins Museum Collection, exhibition curations, Study Collection

Current Research

The main focus of my research in the past five years has been the history of the Central School of Arts and Crafts/Design and closely linked to that the Central Saint Martins Museum and Study Collection, much of which is material collected by the Central School in the period 1896-1966.

As the organiser of a research project based on the collection, my team and I have undertaken new research on aspects of the collection which have in the case of The Silent Screen (Central Saint Martins 1999) resulted in an exhibition, and catalogue with a fully researched list of all the German film posters in the collection. Object Lessons (Lund Humphries 1996) and Making their Mark(Herbert Press, 2000) are both collections of essays based on new research by myself and the research team on the Central School and its collections and the major impact the college has had on craft and design education. Both these books were accompanied by exhibitions organised by me.

Other publications on aspects of the college and its history researched and edited by me have been Ralph Koltai(Lund Humphries, 1997) and A Century in the Making (The London Institute 1999). The development of the museum collection for which I am responsible was documented in an article I wrote for The Journal of Design History in 1998. In 1997 I was invited to undertake research outside the Central School and its history which resulted in an illustrated book on Eric Fraser (Lund Humphries, 1998). This looks at his significance as a designer and illustrator and provides the widest selection of illustrations so far published on this artist.

My most recent research has been on Central Saint Martins illustrators, I have edited and partly written a publication on this subject 'Picture this: the artist as illustrator' which was published on April 19 2005 by the Herbert Press. This consists of a series of nine essays on different aspects of illustration each by an acknowledged expert in the field. The book accompanies an exhibition celebrating the work Central Saint Martins illustrators. Both the book and exhibition attempt to show the influence of key teachers on students at both the founding colleges.