Fairy tales & Illustrations

In the book store not so surprisingly I often find myself spending more time in the children’s section. I relish going through very minutely detailed illustrations of surreal narratives that have taken root in various cultures and time periods, and stand to reflect the value systems embodied within every society. The text and illustrations feed on each other but at the same time possess the ability to be independent works. The illustrations sometimes do not necessarily illustrate the text but build their own narratives to play a game of curiosity and intrigue, where one leaves the text and gets engrossed within the illustration, absorbing every line, detail, colour and composition. But of recently I find the pages having become glossier and the illustrations less detailed, with the narratives sterilized by our political righteousness. The stories seem to have lost their sense of imagination, .Maybe these new glossy, simple, sterile fairy tales are reflections of our current society...
Some illustrations by Ivan Bilbin (1876 – 1942) and Arthur Rackham (1867 – 1939) two of my favourite illustrators, who played an important role in rendering some of the most beautiful stories with their imagination.