Robert Ingpen

Robert Ingpen
Born (1936-10-13) 13 October 1936
Geelong, Victoria, Australia
Occupation Graphic designer, illustrator, writer
Nationality Australian
Period 1958–present; children's books from mid-1970s
Genre Children's classics, folk tales, picture books
Subject Science illustration; Australia environment, history
Notable awards Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration
1986

Robert Roger Ingpen AM, FRSA (born 13 October 1936) is an Australian graphic designer, illustrator, and writer. For his "lasting contribution" as a children's illustrator he received the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1986.[1][2]

Early life

Ingpen was born in Geelong, Victoria, and attended Geelong College to 1957. He graduated with a Diploma of Graphic Art from RMIT in 1958, where he studied with Harold Freedman.[3]

Career

In 1958, Ingpen was appointed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) as an artist to interpret and communicate the results of scientific research. From 1968 Ingpen worked as a freelance designer, illustrator and author. He was also a member of a United Nations team in Mexico and Peru until 1975, where he designed pamphlets on fisheries and was involved in "a number of Australian conservation and environmental projects".[3] He left the CSIRO to work full-time as a freelance writer in 1968.[3] Ingpen's interest in conservation issues continued, and he was one of the founding members of the Australian Conservation Foundation.[3]

Work

Flag of the Northern Territory as designed by Ingpen.

Ingpen has written or illustrated more than 100 published books. These include children's picture books and fictional stories for all ages. His nonfiction books mostly relate to history, conservation, environment and health issues. His most frequent collaborator has been the author and editor Michael Page.

Ingpen has designed many postage stamps for Australia, as well as the flag and coat of arms for the Northern Territory.[3][4] Ingpen has created a number of public murals in Geelong, Melbourne, Canberra and the Gold Coast in Queensland. He also has designed bronze statues, which include the Poppykettle Fountain in the Geelong Steam Packet Gardens (currently dry due to drought restrictions) and the bronze doors to the Melbourne Cricket Club. His most recent work is the design and working drawings for a tapestry, which was woven by The Victorian Tapestry Workshop, to celebrate the 150 years of the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

In 1982 Ingpen designed the Dromkeen Medal for the Governors of the Courtney Oldmeadow Children's Literature Foundation. The Dromkeen is awarded annually to Australians in recognition of contributions to children's literature and Ingpen received it himself in 1989 for his own work in the field.[5]

Ingpen was illustrator for the centenary editions of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and Wendy and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows for which he bases characterisations on contemporary figures and personalities.[6]

In 2007 Ingpen illustrated a picture book by Liz Lofthouse called Ziba Came on a Boat, which was nominated for many Australian awards including the Australian Children's Book Council Awards and the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards.

Exhibitions

In 1999 Ingpen had a major retrospective exhibition in Taipei, which travelled to other regions of Taiwan for a two-month period. Also in 1999 an exhibition of the original artworks and book launch for Around the World in 80 Days was held in London.[7]

In 2002 Ingpen had a solo exhibition in Bologna, Italy, and works from Shakespeare were exhibited in New York City.[7]

In 2002 Ingpen's work featured in the inaugural exhibition at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Massachusetts, and he donated to the Museum the illustrations for Charise Neugebauer's Halloween Circus at the Graveyard Lawn (2003).

Awards

The biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award conferred by the International Board on Books for Young People is the highest recognition available to a writer or illustrator of children's books. Ingpen won the illustration award in 1986.[1][2] Patricia Wrightson won the writing award that year, and they remain the only Australians among more than 60 Andersen Medal recipients.[1] Ingpen had illustrated Wrightson's most highly regarded work, The Nargun and the Stars (1973), a children's fantasy rooted in Australian Aboriginal mythology.

He received the Australian Dromkeen Medal in 1989.[5] In 2005 he was made honorary doctor of arts by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology[8] and in 2007 made a member of the Order of Australia for "service to literature as an illustrator and author of children's books, to art design and education, and as a supporter of health care organisations." [9]

Awards for particular works:

Works

As illustrator only

Children's Classics[12]

double-dagger 12 works named by Palazzo Editions in two pages on Ingpen. The Night Before Christmas and The Owl and the Pussycat differ in format, larger and much shorter than the "Palazzo Children's Classics" series (192 to 240pp, 235 x 195mm).[12]

Fiction writing

Non-fiction writing

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Hans Christian Andersen Awards". International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  2. 1 2 "Robert Ingpen" (pp. 76–77, by Eva Glistrup). The Hans Christian Andersen Awards, 1956–2002. IBBY. Gyldendal. 2002. Hosted by Austrian Literature Online (literature.at). Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "MS 9141 Papers of Robert Ingpen: Biographical Note". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 29 March 2008.
  4. ↑ "Northern Territory". Ausflag. Archived from the original on 23 February 2008. Retrieved 29 March 2008.
  5. 1 2 "Dromkeen Medal: Previous Recipients of the Dromkeen Medal". Scholastic Australia. Retrieved 29 March 2008.
  6. ↑ Margaret Throsby interview with Robert Ingpen, broadcast on (Australian) ABC Radio National. Retrieved 31 October 2008.
  7. 1 2 Melaleuca Galleries - Robert Ingpen
  8. ↑ "Robert Ingpen (1936–) Biography - Personal, Career, Honors Awards, Writings, Sidelights". JRank Free encyclopedia. Retrieved 29 March 2008.
  9. ↑ "It's an Honour". Australian Government. Retrieved 29 March 2008.
  10. ↑ "The Children's Book of the Year Awards: Winners and Commended Books 1980–1989". Children's Book Council of Australia. Archived from the original on 27 March 2008. Retrieved 29 March 2008.
  11. 1 2 "The Poppykettle Series". AUSTLIT (austlit.edu.au). Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "Robert Ingpen and the Children's Classics series". News. 28 July 2011.
    · "Robert Ingpen". Authors. "Taken from RMIT University Alumni Hall of Fame"; evidently augmented by Palazzo's list of Children's Classics to 2012 and selected links.
    Palazzo Editions (palazzo.extra-strong.co.uk). Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  13. 1 2 "Robert Ingpen". AUSTLIT (austlit.edu.au). Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  14. 1 2 About the author. "The Adventures of Pinocchio" (product display). Walker Books Australia and New Zealand. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  15. ↑ National Library of Australia - Looking for Clancy by Robert Ingpen
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