To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Illustrators Exhibition held in 2016, Bologna Children's Book Fair organized an extraordinary event, the exhibition "Artists and masterpieces of illustration - 50 Illustrators Exhibitions 1967 -2016", which includes the original works of fifty illustrators from among the most important in the world who participated in or made their debut at the Illustrators Exhibition and are today part of its history.
Fifty illustrators with their unforgettable books, great classics that have influenced generations of artists and readers. Fifty big names among the most representative who have shaped the history of illustration, offering unprecedented insights into developments and trends in illustrated books for young readers.
The fifty artists included in the exhibition “Artists and masterpieces of illustration” are: Beatrice Alemagna, Francesco Tullio – Altan, Ofra Amit, Arnal Ballester, Eric Battut, Jean-Louis Besson, Quentin Blake, Eric Carle, Chiara Carrer, Bernardo Carvalho, Maja Celija, Mara Cerri, Jean Claverie, Patrick Couratin, Stasys Eidrigevičius, Klaus Ensikat, Monique Felix, Philip Giordano, Helme Heine, Anne Herbauts, Robert Ingpen, Roberto Innocenti, Svjetlan junaković, Dušan Kállay, Suzy Lee, Georges Lemoine, Emanuele Luzzati, David Macaulay, Iela Mari, David McKee, Taro Miura, Bruno Munari, Yan Nascimbene, Fabian Negrin, Bente Olesen Nyström, Květa Pacovská, Vladimir Radunsky, Chris Raschka, Tony Ross, Alfonso Ruano, Nooshin Safakhoo, Alessandro Sanna, J.otto Seibold, Ralph Steadman, Shaun Tan, Max Velthuijs, Piero Ventura, Klaas Verplancke, Štěpán Zavřel, Lisbeth Zwerger
The exhibition was curated by Paola Vassalli (an expert in children’s literature and arts education) and after the Fair it has undertaken a successful international tour that saw it move from Bologna to Poland and USA (original pieces) and, through reproduction, in several places:
- in Poland, at the Pan Tadeusz Museum in Wroclaw (31 May – 30 June 2016) and at the Międzynarodowe Centrum Kultury - International Cultural Centre in Krakow (4 - 30 January 2017);
- in Milan, at the Laboratorio Formentini (9 February - 1 March 2017);
- in China, at the Silk Road Culture and Art Exhibition Hall in Quanzhou (29 May - 3 July 2017); at the Wen Xuan Art Museum of Chengdu (12 July - 14 August 2017); at the Beijing Today Art Museum (20 August – 25 October 2017); at the Creative Design Center Art Museum of Hangzhou (3 November - 4 December 2017) and at the Yealife art space of Shenzhen (1 January -12 February 2018);
- in Brazil, hosted at the Sesc Bom Retiro in Sao Paulo (with the title “A Ilustração como porta para o Mundo”-10 July - 10 October 2018), by the SESC of Birigui (26 january - 21 april 2019), the SESC of Itaquera (4 May - 28 Jult 2019) and the SESC of Sao Carlos (10 august- 8 December 2019).
- in New York, hosted by the Society of Illustrators (30 October 2018 - 7 January 2019);
- in South Korea, at the MBC - Munhwa Broadcasting Corp. in Daegu (3 November 2018 - 6 February 2019), in Ulsan (17 April – 7 July 2019), in Geumcheon (Seoul district, 1-31 August 2019) and, in 2020, Seoul.
“Artists and masterpieces of illustration. 50 Illustrators Exhibition 1967 – 2016” is also a book, published by Corraini Edizioni.