A new exhibition featuring never-seen-before works from Raymond Briggs will open next year close to the late illustrator’s home.
Bloomin’ Brilliant: The Life and Work of Raymond Briggs will show 30 items from his estate as well as more than 100 original artworks at the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft.
The exhibition joins up with the acclaimed, currently touring show from Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration (Raymond Briggs: A Retrospective) and is the first specifically curated show following Mr Briggs’ death last year.
Steph Fuller, Director, Ditchling Museum said: “It has been a privilege to be invited by Raymond Briggs’ estate to visit his home and select objects for this exhibition.
“Being in his studio amongst his drawing materials, family photographs and notes to self, it feels as though he might have just stepped out and could return at any moment. I hope we’re able to convey something of that feeling to visitors.”
This exhibition includes work from Briggs’s pioneering titles, including The Snowman (1978), Father Christmas (1973), Fungus the Bogeyman (1977) and When the Wind Blows (1982), plus the autobiographical graphic novel Ethel and Ernest (1998), delving into the origin and creation of these classic images and stories.
Also on show are his drawings, hand-lettered typography and page designs from his earliest commissions to his 2004 book The Puddleman.
It will also feature items and objects from his home, just a mile down the road in the village of Westmeston, including his writing and drawing desk which he used for over 40 years and where he first originated some of his most famous works.
A framed Private Eye edition from 1993 riffing on his most iconic work, a faux blue plaque outlining his commitment to practical jokes, and a 1997 note from his partner´s granddaughter detailing that “Raymond is not a normal person” – an utterance that would also make it onto Brigg´s own gravestone – are amongst the intriguing items that will be shared with the public.
Images from his work also adorn several household items, with a pair of extravagant cupboard doors featuring life-sized paintings of his parents Ethel and Ernest, who were also the focus of his 1996 graphic novel documenting their lives.
The titular character from 1977´s Fungus the Bogeyman makes several appearances, whether sewn into a blue velvet armchair, being used as a back support for a wooden chair, or simply as a repurposed book advertising stand, visitors will be able to grasp how an author can literally live with their creations.
A selection of the private correspondence that Briggs kept over the decades will also be included, from the children that enthusiastically wrote to him, to an adult from Pennsylvania who in 1975 admonished him for portraying Santa Claus as “performing an act of personal hygiene”, as well as the author´s own thoughts on the industry he worked in.
Never-seen-before artworks will also be included specifically at Ditchling including artwork for Father Christmas on Holiday, as well as several portraits and other illustrations that for decades never left his home.
This exhibition features original illustrations courtesy of Raymond Briggs’s Archive and Penguin Random House.
