Remy Charlip
Abraham Remy Charlip (January 10, 1929 – August 14, 2012) was an American artist, writer, choreographer, theatre director, designer and teacher. He wrote or illustrated 29 children's books.
Life and career
Charlip studied art at Straubenmuller Textile High School in Manhattan, and fine arts at Cooper Union in New York, graduating in 1949.
In the 1960s Charlip created a unique form of choreography, which he called "air mail dances". He would send a set of drawings to a dance company, and the dancers would then order the positions and create transitions and context, without Charlip's further participation.
Charlip performed with composer John Cage, and was a founder member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, for which he also designed sets and costumes. He directed plays for the Judson Poets Theatre, co-founded the Paper Bag Players children's theater company, and served as head of the Children's Theater and Literature Department at Sarah Lawrence College. Off-Broadway, he was the "Stage Director" of a 1962 production of Bertolt Brecht's Man Is Man for Julian Beck's Living Theatre, for which he received his first of two Obie Awards,[1] and designed the set for the American Place Theatre production of Paul Goodman's Jonah in 1966.[2] He won three New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year citations, and was awarded a six-month residency in Kyoto, Japan from the Japan/U.S. Commission on the Arts.
Charlip was the model for illustrations of Georges Méliès in the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, written and illustrated by Brian Selznick.[3]
He moved to San Francisco in 1989, and worked with local arts groups, including the Oakland Ballet. He died in San Francisco in 2012.[4][5][6]
Choreography
- Meditation (solo, 1966)
- A Week's Notice (duet, 1977)[7]
- Art of the Dance (solo, 1977)[7]
- Travel Sketches (solo, 1977)[7]
- Glow Worm (quartet, 1977)[7]
- Dance in Bed (solo)
- April (Judson Dance Theatre)[8]
- December (Judson Dance Theatre)[8]
Children's books
- 1956 Dress Up and Let's Have a Party. Scott.
- 1957 Where is Everybody?. Scott.
- 1957 It Looks Like Snow Greenwillow, reprint 2000, On Dirait Qu'il Neige
- 1962 The Tree Angel Knopf.
- 1964 Fortunately. Parents Magazine Press. Reprinted by Scholastic Book Services in 1969 with the Title What Good Luck! What Bad Luck!
- 1966 Mother, Mother, I Feel Sick, Send for the Doctor, Quick, Quick, Quick. Four Winds Press
- 1969 Arm in Arm (A Collection of Connections, Endless Tales, Reiterations, and other Echolalia). ISBN 0-590-07758-9.
- 1973 Harlequin and the Gift of Many Colors.
- 1975 Thirteen, with Jerry Joyner. Four Winds Press/MacMillan Publishing
- 1987 Handtalk Birthday Four Winds Press
- 1999 Peanut Butter Party. Tricycle Press.
- 1999 Sleepytime Rhyme. Tricycle Press. Greenwillow Books. ISBN 0-688-16271-1
- 2000 Why I Will Never Ever Ever Ever Have Enough Time to Read This Book. Tricycle Press.
- 2007 A Perfect Day. Greenwillow Books. ISBN 978-0-06-051972-8.
References
Notes
- ↑ "Man is Man" on the IOBDb
- ↑ "Jonah" on the IOBDb
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- ↑ Palevsky, Stacey. "Drawing inspiration: Not even a stroke can halt prolific S.F. children’s book artist" JWeekly.com (July 30, 2009)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Siegel, Marcia B. The Tail of the Dragon: New Dance, 1976-1982 Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1991. pp.38-40
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 McDonagh, Don. The Rise and Fall and Rise of Modern Dance New York:Outerbridge & Dienstfrey, 1970. p.98
Sources
- "Young at Heart: A Celebration of Remy Charlip" in the Library of Congress LC Information Bulletin, June 23, 1997
- Remy Charlip at WorldCat.org
External links
- Official website
- The Paper Bag Players, co-founded by Charlip
- Remy Charlip at the Internet Movie Database
- Remy Charlip at LC Authorities — with 39 catalog records
- 1929 births
- 2012 deaths
- American male writers
- American artists
- American choreographers
- American children's book illustrators
- Guggenheim Fellows
- Cooper Union alumni
- Artists from San Francisco, California
- Writers from San Francisco, California
- Artists from New York City
- Writers from New York City
- 20th-century American writers
- 21st-century American writers
