Saturday, 1 April 2006 | Elif Sungur
Dick Bruna: Pure Dutch Design
Dick Bruna's character 'miffy', the cartoon bunny, has grown over a period of 50 years to become an international phenomenon as a character in children's books and as a design icon. Dick Bruna's entire work will have a permanent home in the dick bruna huis in Utrecht.
Dick Bruna's work (born in 1927) is distinguished by its sharp lines and colours. This earned him a very individual place within the modernistic Dutch design tradition, which began with Gerrit Rietveld in the 1920's and stretched to Droog Design in the 1990's. The search for a simple, clear design, often with a humorous streak and a sense of social awareness is part of Dutch history. Eighty years after Gerrit Rietveld's famous red and blue chair, miffy has conquered the world: minimalism with a wink.
Dick Bruna's Simplicity
Bruna began his search for a simple, visual style in his youth when he worked in his father's publishing company as a designer of book covers. His best-known creation is the world famous bunny, 'miffy'. She has a face that consists of a little diagonal cross for a mouth and two dots for the eyes. For many years, Bruna has been using the same colours for his books; red, yellow, blue, green and sometimes brown and grey, with black outlines. Dick Bruna's books have been translated into more than 40 languages and 85 million copies have been sold worldwide. In addition to the picture books, the exhibition, which covers over 400 m2 of the dick bruna huis, also displays a selection from his two thousand book covers, over a hundred posters and dozens of postcards and pictures. A documentary gives an overview of his working process and it also shows Bruna's lifelong aim for directness and simplicity.
Dick Bruna Huis in Historic Utrecht
The dick bruna huis is part of the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, which has existed since 1838, making it the oldest municipal museum in the Netherlands. The museum's collection of Rietveld-designs, including the world-famous Rietveld Schröderhuis, is the largest in the world. Furthermore, the Centraal Museum has an extensive collection of Droog Design, whose work has been purchased on a regular basis since the 1990's. The dick bruna huis is situated opposite the Centraal Museum in the Utrecht Museum district, the historic centre of the city.
This is a permanent exhibition.
For further information, please visit http://www.centraalmuseum.nl/bruna/index.php?lingo=UK
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