From Dark to Light: Illuminating the Critically Missing History of Illustration

Monday March 6, 2017 5pm

The Seneca@York building, Room S1209 (aka Lower Kaleidoscope room)

In 2018, the 648-page History of Illustration, edited by Susan Doyle, Jaleen Grove, and Whitney Sherman, will be published by Fairchild Books, an imprint of Bloomsbury. In it, diverse texts such as mass magazines, Persian miniatures, comics, sub-Saharan kanga, spicy pulps, livres d’artiste, children’s books, Mayan codices, psychedelic posters, ukiyo-e and more come together to describe and define “illustration” worldwide. The History of Illustration attests to the exponential growth of Illustration Studies as a field since 2000.

In this illustrated presentation, Associate Editor Dr. Jaleen Grove will position the History of Illustration project within Illustration Studies and related fields, and describe its five-year process and challenges faced in researching and compiling a history that formerly only existed piecemeal. She will discuss critical aspects that affected the book’s form and content, such as canon formation, diversity and representation, so-called “illustration theory,” the context of textbook production, and how it will serve forward-looking educational needs in illustration degree programs.

An Adjunct Professor in Art History and Visual Culture at York University, Dr. Jaleen Grove is presently the Postdoctoral Fellow in Popular Print at the Dowd Modern Graphic History Library situated at Washington University in St. Louis. Grove has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of Illustration since its founding in 2012. From 2013 to 2016 Grove was the Scholar in Residence at The Cahén Archives, and her monograph Oscar Cahén: Life and Work was published by Art Canada Institute in September, 2015.

Image: Morely J. Ayearst, magazine cover design for The Goblin, Toronto, 1922. In the collection of Rare Books and Special Collections, McGill University Library.