Samantha Johnson, Senior Picture Researcher in Penguin's art department, explains how she created the cover for the Chinese masterpiece Fortress Besieged
Creating the right cover for this new Penguin Classic was a task which encompassed every aspect of the cover design process – picture research, art direction, commissioning and design – not to mention Anglo-Chinese cultural relations.
The way every book cover looks is important to Penguin. At their most successful, books are objects of desire for the art on both sides of the cover – in and out. Our aim with each cover is to convey a suggestion of the themes and spirit of the book – whether this is a classic novel, contemporary literature or new and challenging non-fiction.
The task of researching covers for Penguin’s much loved, high profile Classics series is one that the picture researchers working within the art department of Penguin are most closely involved in. Many of the Classic titles that have been in print from the earliest days of Penguin’s publishing are entwined with the development of Penguin book design, reflecting and creating changing styles.
For the cover of this first publication of an English translation of Fortress Besieged, a classic twentieth-century Chinese comic novel, we decided to approach the cover design as we would a fresh, contemporary literary novel. Our original brief was to present a photographic approach, so our initial research was for photography from China in the 1930’s when the novel is set and we also explored the possibilities of contemporary Chinese photography.
It was important to us that any imagery used would convey the humour and charm that we felt was so central to the theme of the novel, and in the course of our research it became apparent that Chinese illustrations and artwork from the period might covey this spirit more successfully than a photographic image could. We found many wonderful prints, but many of these from the 30’s had a political subject matter, which we felt was inappropriate to the novel. The key was to find artwork that conveyed the theme of the novel in the style of the period.
Recalling an exhibition held at the British Library in 2003, Chinese Printmaking Today: Woodblock Printing in China 1980-2000, I contacted the London based Muban Foundation, co-curators of this exhibition. This exhibition was a major display of 200 prints showcasing the art of printmaking over the last twenty years in mainland China. The Foundation’s name ‘Muban’ means ‘woodblock’ in Chinese and it was founded in 1997 to raise the profile of contemporary Chinese printmaking in the West, and to revitalize this field in contemporary China. Its collection comprises Chinese prints spanning hundreds of years, with outstanding holdings of twentieth-century printing. These modern prints reflect the styles, politics, messages and feelings of each decade of the twentieth-century.
One of the contemporary artists whose work was included in this exhibition is Wang Chao, a young artist who has become one of the leading practitioners of traditional woodblock printing techniques in China today. A graduate of the Printmaking Department of the China National Academy of Fine Art (CNAFA), Wang Chao now carries out research as part of the the Traditional Water-based Printing Workshop of the CNAFA. Working primarily in woodblock techniques, he is one of the few professional artists who practise the ancient woodblock method of relief design combined with colour printing.
The Foundation’s Director, Haiyao Zheng, responded to my enquiry with great enthusiasm - Fortress Besieged, she told us, was her favorite novel and she felt that Wang Chao’s work was perfect for this book, containing a wry humour and beautiful simplicity. With Haiyao’s invaluable help (Wang Chao does not speak English and I do not speak Chinese!) I commissioned an original artwork for our new publication.
The novel, like the fortunes of its hapless hero, Fang Hung-chien, begins on board a liner bringing him back from Europe to his home in Shanghai. On this voyage, Fang meets the two women, Miss Su and Miss Pao, with whom his future becomes entangled. The success of Wang Chao’s illustration comes from the artist’s understanding of the novel - the unspoken and uncertain relationship between Fang and the woman he shares the ship’s deck with as they return to China. Wang Chao presented us with a selection of sketches portraying these themes in different ways from which we selected this image. Its success was confirmed once the illustration was incorporated into an overall cover design by our designer, Coralie Bickford-Smith, who brought out the strengths of the image through sensitive treatment of the print.
In March 2005, Wang Chao was the visiting Printmaker at the University of Ulster and the Belfast Print Workshop, where he conducted workshops and demonstrations in woodblock printing with water-soluble colours using traditional Chinese printing methods and materials. Wang Chao is a specialist in these techniques having made a special study of the traditional colour printing techniques developed by Chinese artist/ publishers towards the end of the Ming dynasty. A replica of a Ming period printing table was built in Belfast to be used during Wang Chao's visit.
Penguin’s translation and publication of classic international literature gives us a wonderful opportunity to explore the work of complimentary historical and contemporary artists, bringing them into an everyday arena on our bookshelves. I hope, by continuing Penguin’s tradition of working with outstanding artists from all fields, we are able to repay them for the role they play in producing such objects of desire.
‘Chinese Printmaking Today: Woodblock Printing in China 1980-2000’ will be shown at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery from 15 October 2005 to 8 January 2006. Two of Wang Chao’s books and two of his prints are displayed on the exhibition.
Coralie Bickford-Smith’s cover design for Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Anderson will feature in the European Design Show at the Design Museum from 28 May 2005.
