Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn

Featuring: The first Noël: a Christmas carousel

Featuring a title from the Libraries' pop-up book collection and current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.

The first Noël, like many pop-up and movable books, was created to celebrate the holiday season. Jan Pieńkowski, Polish born illustrator and paper engineer working in England, designed this carousel book (book that unfolds to 360 degrees) containing five stage-like scenes depicting the nativity story. The white cut-paper figures are silhouetted and layered in snowflake-like patterns atop bright red backdrops.—Stephen Van Dyk

The first Noël: a Christmas carousel. Jan Pieńkowski; assistant illustrator, David Walser. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2004.

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Featuring: Vojtěch Kubašta

In the 1950s-1960s, Vojtěch Kubašta, an Austrian-born paper engineer and illustrator working in
Czechoslovakia, created a series of pop-up adventure and fantasy stories combining bold folk art style imagery, distinctive colors, and innovative cut and folded paper styles. Some of his large-scale constructions of this period include Marco Polo (1962), The tournament (1950s), and Ricky the Rabbit (1961).

Ricky the Rabbit, 1961 (background), by Vojtěch Kubašta

The Libraries’ current exhibition highlighting innovative book design, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn, is on display in the Smithsonian Libraries Exhibition Gallery, National Museum of American History, first floor west, through September 5, 2011.

This exciting paper engineer is also included in the exhibition brochure (page 15), which is also available as a downloadable PDF.

Pop-up enthusiasts can also keep track of the show and the Libraries' extensive movable book collections on its Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn blog.

—Elizabeth Periale

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Featuring: Ricky the Rabbit

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Featuring: Ricky the Rabbit

Featuring a title from the Libraries' pop-up book collection and current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.

Vojtěch Kubašta was born in Austria and was raised in Prague where he first studied architecture before pursuing a career as an illustrator and paper engineer. Working with Artia, a state run publishing company, he created a series on boldly colored pop-ups many that were later market by Bancroft in London. Ricky the Rabbit consists of a page or two of narrative and one large, intricate, v-fold pop-up featuring a rabbit named Ricky and his world. Kubašta’s images, reminiscent of folk art—the lay-out and design of forms—and his stories featuring animals and children—inspired many later paper engineers in America.—Stephen Van Dyk

Ricky the Rabbit. Illustrations by Vojtěch Kubašta. London: Bancroft, 1961.

In Case You Missed It ...

Recent lecture by "Pop-Up Lady" Ellen Rubin is now available:

 

—Elizabeth Periale

Featuring: Numbers

Featuring a title from the Libraries' pop-up book collection and current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.

Numbers or Roly Poly Numbers is a pop-up version of a leporello (a book that folds out in an accordion-like manner). A small brightly-colored cube is opened by pulling apart one side to reveal a small pop-up figure in a smaller cube. The process continues as ten cubes— each with a number of figures ranging from one to ten— are exposed. Kees Moerbeek, a Dutch paper engineer and maker of many pop-up books, has created a delightful way for young children to discover numbers.

—Stephen Van Dyk

Numbers. Kees Moerbeek. Wiltshire, England. Child’s Play(International) Ltd, 2000.

Chuck Fischer Lecture Today!

The Libraries presents the second lecture in a new series that explores the history, artistry, design and construction of pop-up and movable books.

Held in conjunction with Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn, our ongoing exhibition in the Libraries' gallery located in the National Museum of American History, the series features movable book historians, pop-up artists and designers, and paper engineers.

Please watch our Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn blog for future announcements. Join us TODAY for:

Chuck Fischer

Creating a Pop-Up Book and The Enduring Appeal Of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

December 1, 2010

12:00pm-1:00pm

Carmichael Auditorium

National Museum of American History

Washington, D.C.

Chuck Fischer (top) is a leading author and designer who has taken his unique painting style and effortlessly transferred his signature look to various home furnishings, products, and books, making his remarkable artistry available to a wide audience. Fischer’s work is in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City and in the Libraries' exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop, & Turn at the National Museum of American History.

On November 10, 2010, Fischer’s latest pop-up book, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: A Pop-Up by Chuck Fischer was published by Little, Brown and Company. Along with the book, Fischer launched interactive apps for the iPad: A Christmas Carol and Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Fischer's book, Christmas in New York: A Pop-Up Book has become a perennial holiday favorite, chosen as one of USA Today’s Top Ten holiday books for 2007. In The Beginning: The Art of Genesis was published in 2008, and Angels: A Pop-Up Book (bottom) was chosen by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to be featured in their Holiday 2010 catalog. 2010 marks the fourth year Fischer has been honored with the commission to create the annual holiday card for The White House Historical Association.

The lecture on this afternoon will be followed by a book signing event for Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: A Pop-Up by Chuck Fischer.

For event inquiries, contact Susan Frampton, framptons@si.edu.

—Liz O'Brien and Elizabeth Periale

 

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