'Miffy at the Gallery' By Dick Bruna

'Miffy at the Gallery' 1997 By Dick Bruna

Category: Economy and Minimalism

This image is taken from ‘Miffy at the Gallery’ a children’s book created by Dick Bruna and “simplicity is the key to Miffy’s appeal.” (19) Bruna specialises in working in a minimalistic way which is clear in the image you can see above. There is a very small amount happening in the image which causes the minimalistic approach to excel. Bruna takes his time “mapping the outline in poster paint with a brush, then painstakingly cutting out coloured-paper shapes to form clothes and backgrounds.” (20) Although Bruna’s illustrations seem to appear very simple to the eye, his “process can take months.” (21) As you can see Bruna uses simple bold colours and sticks to these colours in his images. This is especially clear in the typical shades of blue and yellow he has used that are mostly associated with when using primary colours. Bruna is highly influenced by the famous artist, Matisse, “the influence of Matisse was evident in his cut-paper technique” (22) and he says himself, “When I saw Matisse’s work – especially his collages – he became the most important man in my life.” (23) Bruna even replicates one of Matisse’s pieces of work ‘La Gerbe’ in his simple Miffy-like way, which is illustrated in the image above from ‘Miffy at the Gallery’. The one simple black line taken horizontally across the image indicates the difference between the floor and the ceiling on a plain white background. Bruna states that “the most difficult thing is keeping it simple” (24) yet it is clear that he has managed to do just that. It is the simplicity in Bruna’s work that makes it so effective as the lines and colours are simple enough to be valuable to the illustrative piece but not in an overpowering way.

References:
(19) Secher. B (2006)
(20) Secher. B (2006)
(21) Secher. B (2006)
(22) Secher. B (2006)
(23) Secher. B (2006)
(24) Secher. B (2006)