That excites me - encouraging people to start using (their) intuitive visual brain, getting some practice at visual narrative.”Ī fine artist by training, Bantock’s trilogy lured readers into a voyeuristic view of a romantic, three-dimensional correspondence between Griffin and Sabine.īantock’s maiden voyage into writing met swiftly with success in the early ’90s. Now, looking back at that work, I’m remembering things I wanted to do but didn’t have time,” Bantock said.įor his retrospective, Bantock will transform the museum’s indoor galleries into various rooms: “The Drawing Room,” for example, and “The Mail Room.” Bantock said the exhibit will have a sense of story, yet without words: “You’ll come into the show and then be catapulted into a world without written narrative. “After doing the books, I went for 20 years without selling anything - no need and no intent. The phenomenal success of his series landed Bantock a plethora of opportunities ranging from a position on the board that judges Canadian postage stamps, to his commission illustrating Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” recently published by Penguin. His Griffin and Sabine saga sold more than 3 million copies worldwide, with 12 international editions, and lingered 100 weeks on The New York Times best- seller list. “I haven’t done a proper show since I left England 25 years ago,” said Bantock, who took the publishing world by storm in the early 1990s with his innovative series that hybridized fine art, fiction and low-tech, yet interactive book design. The exhibition will be Bantock’s first-ever retrospective, his first show in the United States, and his first exhibit in a generation. The Museum of Outdoor Arts, in Englewood, will open “Nick Bantock: A Retrospective (Griffin, Sabine and Beyond)” Sept.

Who says lavishly designed books are for children only? Certainly not Nick Bantock, the internationally revered artist-author who created the “Griffin and Sabine” trilogy and launched an entire genre.īut he’s not just focusing on books these days.

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The griffin and sabine trilogy