Introducing Heinrich Kley

July 3, 2008 11:21 AM

Who? Only one of the supreme German graphic artists of his time, that's all. Long an acknowledged influence among illustrators, animators and cartoonists, he is probably known primarily for a couple of Dover Books collection of his sketchbook art that were published back in the 60s and are now hard to find.

All but forgotten today, his work informed Disney's "Dance of the Hours" sequence in Fantasia. His cartoons were unusually trenchant for the times, given that he did much of his most enduring graphic work in Germany between the wars. His use of animals to illustrate human foibles and failings was second to none. But let's allow the master's work to speak for itself.

posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit (13 comments total)

Really great. You can almost see them moving and the whimsy (or whatever) is neat. The scribbly style makes it hard to tell what you are looking at at first, though.
posted by DU at 11:40 AM on July 3, 2008

The Dover books are well worth looking at, DU, if you can find them. The larger sizes clear up the 'scribbly'. Wicked sense of humor.
posted by tgyg at 11:58 AM on July 3, 2008

Wow! Wonderful, and mostly wonderfully strange. I like the very dry titles, too.

But there's... All but forgotten today, his work informed Disney's "Dance of the Hours" sequence in Fantasia.

That doesn't seem to make any sense. Flagged as HTML/display error.
posted by jack_mo at 12:04 PM on July 3, 2008

I thought this would be about Tomi Ungerer
posted by parmanparman at 12:04 PM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

.
posted by CCBC at 1:25 PM on July 3, 2008

Good post. Kley is a master.
posted by marxchivist at 2:46 PM on July 3, 2008

Not often can we say something is both sensual and macabre. There is both celebration and condemnation of overindulgence in so many of these. Attraction and repulsion.
posted by Xoebe at 2:53 PM on July 3, 2008

YES.
I still remember the weekend when my mother and I met for lunch and we each pulled out an amazing book we'd found at garage sales - she had found volume one and I had found volume two.
It's a cherished possession still. So lush, so wickedly and darkly humorous, so accurate and sensual.. just wonderful.
posted by Billegible at 3:02 PM on July 3, 2008

This is right up my alley, so thanks!
One tiny criticism: Your introduction doesn't show up on the front page. The post starts with 'Who?'
posted by carsonb at 3:15 PM on July 3, 2008

Random clicking within the links leads me to this, which as much as Kley is worth the price of admission.

Many thanks, I now have my work cut out for me.
posted by IndigoJones at 6:16 AM on July 4, 2008

I don't see him in my library (system(s)), so I guess I'm up a creek. Ah well, there are other classic drawing masters in there, I guess I'll have to content myself.
posted by DU at 7:11 PM on July 4, 2008

jack_mo, that is not an error. Disney had his artists study Kley's work for that sequence.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 5:38 PM on July 7, 2008

carsonb, my bad. I screwed it up. *blush* But hey, who loves you?
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 5:39 PM on July 7, 2008