Illustration and the Visual Arts
 
Up to 1880 illustration was considered as a minor art, produced by specialised artists for (news) papers, magazines and novels. Until then illustration always had a narrative aspect. From the impressionist and the symbolist period onwards, many artists became eager to work together with writers and to make their imprint on literature. They wanted to express their personal artistic ideas in prints and drawings for books.
In the last decades of the 19th century book illustration by artists – by symbolists as Odilon Redon and Fernand Khnopff, pointillists like Theo van Rysselberghe and expressionists as Edgar Tytgat and Gustave van de Woestijne - was regarded (not in the least by the artists themselves) as a serious aspect / component of their profession. Around 1900 more and more artists  considered the traditional form of the book itself as a means of artistic performance. Over the course of the 20th century,  the development of ‘artists books’ became more and more a serious contribution to ‘high’ art.  This implied as a matter of fact an enormous advancement in status for the art of illustration.
 
During the seminar we will discuss the different ways in which artists from the 19th till the 21st centuries have used illustration as a tool to react on written texts, or as a work of art in itself. The main focus will be on Dutch and Belgian artists, but often in an international context. Artists  as the ones mentioned above could provide interesting case studies.