The Marginalian
The Marginalian

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Reimagined in Minimalist Graphics by Italian Illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli

I have an immense soft spot for artistic interpretations of literary classics, from Salvador Dalí’s art for Don Quixote to the finest illustrations from 150 years of Alice in Wonderland to the most creative takes on The Hobbit. Naturally, I was instantly taken with Classics Reimagined: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (public library) — a gorgeous edition of the L. Frank Baum classic with imaginatively minimalist art by Italian illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli (whose initials couldn’t befit the project more perfectly), the first in a new series by Rockport Publishers pairing some of today’s most exciting illustrators and graphic artists with some of yesteryear’s most beloved books.

What makes Zagnoli’s take on Baum’s story especially enchanting is the refreshing juxtaposition between the garish extravagance with which Oz is traditionally portrayed and her restrained yet expressive imagery — contained precision, bold geometric graphics, and repetitive patterns that somehow manage to exude the almost psychedelic sensibility of Baum’s whimsical world.

The Cyclone
How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow
The Cowardly Lion

Baum’s memorable introduction, penned in 1900, springs to new life in Zagnoli’s hands:

Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal…

Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as “historical” in the children’s library; for the time has come for a series of newer “wonder tales” in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.

Having this thought in mind, the story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.

The Deadly Poppy Field
The Queen of the Field Mice
The Guardian of the Gates

Complement Zagnoli’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with some very different visual reimaginings of the Baum classic — a lyrical 1996 edition by Austrian illustrator Lisbeth Zwerger and a street-art-inspired 2013 edition by skateboard graphic artist Michael Sieben.


Published September 18, 2014

https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/09/18/wizard-of-oz-classics-reimagined-olimpia-zagnoli/

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