Remy Charlip, Extraordinary Artist, Passes On
August 16, 2012
Charlip was a choreographer, artist, theatre director, designer, teacher, and creator of children's books.
Abraham Remy Charlip passed away at the age 83 on Tuesday. A founding member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Charlip's children's literature oeuvre includes Dress Up and Let's Have a Party (1956), Arm in Arm (A Collection of Connections, Endless Tales, Reiterations, and other Echolalia) (1969), and A Perfect Day (2007). Charlip received three New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year citations.
In a public radio interview, Charlip once called a picture book, “...a series of swinging doors in which every turning of the page brings you into another world.”
Author/illustrator Brian Selznick, a friend of Remy's, asked the late artist to pose as Georges Méliès for his Caldecott-winning work, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Of Remy, Selznick said, "He’s one of those people you fall in love with as soon as you see him...His warmth and generosity and beauty bubble to the surface immediately. He has such a warm spirit.”
Related links:
View images of Remy Charlip and spreads from his picture books at the CBC's Pinterest>>
Spread from Dress Up and Let's Have a Party by Remy Charlip, Young Scott Books, NY, 1956.