Saturday, May 2, 2015

Segrelles Exhibition in Spain

José Segrelles Tom Thumb
An art museum in Valencia, Spain, has opened an exhibition called "The Labyrinth of Fantasy" about  the dreamlike paintings of José Segrelles (Spanish, 1885-1969—His name is sometimes written as "Josep Segrelles Albert").

Segrelles worked as an illustrator for The Illustrated London News, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Fortune, The American Weekly, and The New York Times. He lived in New York between 1929 and 1935.

The exhibition features more than a hundred watercolors, oils, and pen-and-ink pictures, as well as copies of the magazines and books in which his illustrations appeared.

José Segrelles illustration from Wagner
Many of his pictures evoke the mysterious realms of music, particularly Beethoven and Wagner. He would have been a killer concept artist for Disney's Fantasia.

He was also renowned for his illustrations of Cervantes, H.G. Welles, Dante, Poe and other writers of the mysterious and the macabre. 

José Segrelles The Greedy, illustration from Dante's Inferno
Many artists and movie directors have acknowledged an influence from Segrelles, including Guillermo Del Toro, William Stout, and John Howe.

I hear there's an extensive catalog of the exhibition, and I'll review it if I can get a copy. 
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MUVIM Segrelles: The Labyrinth of Fantasy (The MUVIM is short for The Valencian Museum of Illustration and Modernity)
Book: Jose Segrelles Albert: Su vida y su obra (a large monograph in Spanish from the 1980s)

2 comments:

Christoffer Gertz Bech said...

The name Segrelles was familiar to me, but because of Vicente Segrelles, who in at least some European countries is well known for his fantasy comic (painted in oil) 'The Mercenary'. His web site is here: http://www.segrelles.com/home_english.htm#contents

I had never heard about Josep Segrelles, but I found out that he was Vicente's uncle. Thank you for the tip!

jlcruz said...

Thank you Mr. Gurney for your blog that I read regularly.
I am Spanish. Maybe I can be of some help to you and your followers with regards to this post.
A catalog accompanying the exhibition has been published indeed. You can find it here: http://libreriadada.xopie.com/es/product/segrelles-el-laberinto-de-la-fantasia
(it is the museum bookshop)
I have phoned up the bookshop and I have been able to ascertain these facts: it is a hardcover of 440 pages, size 28 cm x 24 cm (11"x9.45" aprox). Unfortunately it seems like the bookshop don't ship overseas.