The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present [ハードカバー]

モーリス・センダックは、児童文学の世界で最も称賛を集めているアーティストの1人だ。彼は、幻想と想像の世界を表情豊かに描き出す独特のイラストで、国際アンデルセン賞やコルデコット賞、もっとも新しいところでは、2003年度リンドグレーン記念児童文学賞を受賞している。この本は、先に出されたセルマ・レインズの記念すべきモノグラフ『The Art of Maurice Sendak』（邦題『センダックの世界』）の終わりの部分を起点とし、1980年から現在にいたるセンダックの人生と業績を追っている。その20年は、子どもの絵本というジャンルの内外にわたる数々のプロジェクトで埋め尽くされている。驚くべき構成のこの本は、子どもの絵本や大人向けの本の表紙、ポスター、CDのジャケットはもちろん、オペラやバレエ、舞台美術のための下絵や最終稿を含む何百という数のセンダックの優れたイラストであふれている。

センダックの友人であり、ピューリツァー賞受賞歴のある脚本家トニー・クシュナーによる補足的なエッセイには、近親者から見たセンダックの姿が書かれている。内輪の人間の視点から、クシュナーは、センダックの仕事を年代順に総括するにとどまらず、彼が秀でた作家兼アーティストであることを読者に認識させたうえで、彼の業績を再評価させ、さらに、1人の人間としての彼の姿を読者に伝えている。この研究書を読めば、多方面にわたって才能を発揮し、創作活動に関して言えば、今日もっとも創造力に富んだ貴重な存在の1人であるこのアーティストに対して、さらなる理解と正しい認識を深めることができるだろう。

Maurice Sendak ranks as one of the best known and loved children's book artists in the USA, and has been awarded both the Hans Christian Andersen Medal and the Caldecott Medal. This volume picks up where Selma Lanes' monograph of his work "The Art of Maurice Sendak", published in 1980, leaves off, tracing Sendak's life and work from 1980 to 2003. An extended essay by playwright Tony Kushner, a long-time friend of Sendak's provides an intimate view of the artist. Kushner not only gives a chronological overview of Sendak's work, but also allows us to see him as an accomplished author and artist redefining his legacy, and as a man coming to terms with himself.

The first volume of The Art of Maurice Sendak, published when he was 53, covered the period 19511981, and spanned more than 80 books, including Sendaks signature, Caldecott-winning book, Where the Wild Things Are. This new collection presents 350 illustrations, many of which are drawings for set and costume design work, which Sendak has been producing prolifically, others of which are posters for plays and for events such as the New York is Book Country fair. The style of all these works will be familiar to fans of Wild Things; Sendaks precise, intensely shaded yet welcoming shapes and figures have lost none of their luster. They would ordinarily be enough in themselves in a survey like this, but Kushners lovely, funny, partisan text ("Ive been his devoted fan since I was four years old") lifts the book to another level. Its not often that the subject of such as book is matched with a writer as gifted and assured. His discussion of the books better known gemssuch as the poster for Really Rosie (the theatre production based on Sendaks book of the same name)as well as his analysis of less celebrated workssuch as Sendaks Blakean illustrations for an edition of Kleists Penthesileahelp makes this volume a worthy companion to Selma Lanes initial, classic collection.
Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Maurice Sendak is one of most admired artists in children's literature. His uniquely expressive illustrations, which bring to life a world of fantasy and imagination, have won him the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, the Caldecott Medal, and most recently the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Literature in 2003. Picking up where Selma Lanes's earlier, landmark monograph, The Art of Maurice Sendak, left off, this new book traces Sendak's life and work from 1980 to the present, representing two decades filled with projects inside and outside the children's book arena. This strikingly designed volume is overflowing with hundreds of wonderful Sendak illustrations: sketches and final art for opera, ballet, and theater productions, as well as children's books, adult book jackets, posters, and CD covers.

An extended essay by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, a friend of the artist, provides an intimate view of Sendak. With an insider's perspective, Kushner not only gives us a chronological overview of Sendak's work, but also allows us to see him as an accomplished author and artist redefining his legacy, and as a man coming to terms with himself. This survey will only add to our understanding and appreciation of this multitalented artist, whose creative endeavors are among the most inventive and treasured of our time.

Among Maurice Sendak's best-known children's books are Where the Wild Things Are (for which he won the Caldecott Medal in 1964). In the Night Kitchen, Chicken Soup with Rice, and Really Rosie. He has also designed extensively for theatre, opera, and ballet productions. Tony Kushner's seven-hour, two-part Broadway production of Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes received a Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, the Evening Standard Award, two Olivier Award Nominations, the New York Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, and the LAMDA Literary Award for Drama. In late 1998, London's National Theatre selected Angels in America as one of the ten best plays of the 20th century.