The V&A has announced the winners of the 2020 Illustration Awards. Established in 1972, the Awards celebrate excellence in student illustration and three categories of contemporary practice: book cover design, book illustration and illustrated journalism.
"The V&A Illustration Awards celebrate outstanding creativity by working artists, who use the fierce power of illustration to illuminate all the complexity of contemporary human experience," said Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A. "The winning entries speak perfectly to the V&A's founding mission to support artists, embed design in everyday life, and showcase imaginative brilliance."
Ann Kiernan has been named the winner of the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year and the Illustrated Journalism Award 2020. Kiernan's winning illustration was commissioned by Open Democracy to accompany an article by Wael Eskandar entitled 'How Twitter is gagging Arabic users and acting as morality police.'
Eva Eland won the Book Cover Award for 'When Sadness Comes to Call.' Eva Eland's debut picture book is a poignant yet uplifting look at dealing with a universally felt emotion. An important subject to explore with young readers, the judges admired the soft, non-threatening portrayal of sadness.
Clive Hicks-Jenkins won the Book Illustration Award for 'Hansel and Gretel: A Nightmare in Eight Scenes,' written by Simon Armitage, Art Direction by Laurence Beck. The second collaboration between artist and poet, this illustrated book of poems began as a puppet opera in which Hansel and Gretel are reimagined as modern-day refugees. The judges admired the illustrations for enriching, rather than merely representing the written word.
Illustration: When Sadness Comes to Call by Eva Eland
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