Not for Art's Sake

An art book about art that has a purpose, focusing on work by Quentin Blake that has been commissioned for a particular place or for a particular use.

Illustration is the most accessible visual artform and one that is used in all aspects of life; as Quentin Blake says, 'it is, if you like, a vernacular; it’s a language that everybody understands. They may look at it and not think that they’re looking at art, but it’s having the effect on them of art. It’s a language that everybody can read, so to speak.'

The work here shows Quentin using this vernacular to great effect and for very different purposes. In 2007 when Elizabeth II was opening the new Eurostar at St Pancras, Quentin was asked to hide an unsightly building across the road. He drew a 2-colour illustration on his drawing board showing a cast of characters that you might meet on a London Street; this was then blown up large enough to wrap a five-storey building. Since then he has found other opportunities for site specific work. Here are beautiful drawings of new-borns, mothers and fathers in a maternity hospital in France. Some images were etched, larger than life-size, on the external glass of the building as well as used in corridors and delivery suites. Most recently Quentin has done a series of drawings of everyday life for the family rooms for prisons across the UK. And charities have benefited from Quentin’s enjoyment of drawing for a purpose; the Roald Dahl Marvellous Charity’s logo and cards; for Comic Relief’s two virtual pantomimes during lockdown, he drew the scene changes for Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast which were then auctioned; he created a rainbow for the NHS trust mug, and posters for Islington Libraries to encourage reading.

All these and more are featured in this charming book, which opens with a foreword by Quentin Blake, and includes photographs of him at work.