Aesthetics of Childhood: The Visual Art of Rotraut Susanne Berner

Rotraut Susanne Berner’s ambiguous and subtle illustrations and literature can be seen in a romantic tradition of creating meaning through art, thereby emphasizing the potentials of images and literature in deciphering the mystical and unconscious dimensions of life. With oeuvre, Berner has created a unique cosmos of children’s worlds. Her artistic work comprises book covers, illustrations for children’s literature, and the creation of her own books and anthologies. Showcasing her polyvalent and multisided art of illustration and storytelling, she is one of the most important and influential contemporary illustrators. Berner combines pictures and words into unique compositions while also telling stories as series of pictures. As Berner argues, her intention is to develop pictures “in-between the lines” (Petermann 8), or, in the words of Hans Magnus Enzensberger: “Not to repeat the text, but to throw light on it, this is the challenge of illustration.” (qtd. in Petermann 6).

Enzensberger’s awarded children’s book Zahlenteufel, illustrated by Berner, impressively demonstrates the meaning of this words and shows Berner’s skills in giving words a new dimension. Berner has illustrated many books of well-known authors for adults as well as for children, including T.C. Boyle, Italo Calvino, Christoph Hein, Josef Guggenmos, Gudrun Mebs, Jürg Schubiger Franz Hohler and others. Her work comprises more than 80 books and over 800 book covers. Berner has created an oeuvre of picture books, which is influential in its combination of simplicity and complexity, as it opens new dimensions and views to the world. Amongst them are the Karlchen-Geschichten [Stories of Little Charly], the Wimmel books, several alphabet books, as well as several retellings of fairy tales. In her illustrated anthologies, like Apfel, Nuss und Schneeballschlacht or illustrated collections of poetry “pictures form the unifying link that connects the poetry of very different poets” (Kokkola 27). In poetry anthologies Berner often uses techniques of surrealism, combining poetry and pictures to a new dimension.

Rotraut Susanne Berner has been awarded the most important prizes, including Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis für ihr Gesamtwerk [German Literature Award for her complete works] (2006), Celestino Piatti-Preis (1983), and several times the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (1984, 1996, 1998). In the category “Children’s Illustrator” she was a finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2002, 2004, and 2014, being shortlisted for her exceptional illustrations of children’s literature.

Berner has been creating and illustrating a wide range of picture books for over 40 years. She studied graphics at the Fachhochschule München [School of Design in Munich] from 1971-75. After her studies she worked in publishing houses; since 1977 she worked as a freelance graphic designer, illustrator and author. Her illustration and conceptual skills can be seen in her use of many different techniques as well as in her ability to adapt the techniques to different topics. As Berner says: “I don’t have a technique that I always use, instead I try to adopt the techniques to the texts” (qtd. in Petermann 8). Although Berner’s illustration style has a unique signature, Berner continuously innovates her art with new experiments both in style and form. Her techniques range from delicate pen and use of outlines to the use of “brushes to spread colors, line cuts and stamps” as well as the “rare technique of flat screen printing, in which she draws directly onto the film so that the original is produced only after printing” (Kokkola 27). Motion, as Kokkola shows, is a very important characteristic of her work: “These lightly indicated backdrops may be tilted or the perspective may be skewed to create the impression that the figures are in movement. Her characters dance, the houses float, the whole world is in motion” (Kokkola 27). Berner’s techniques to create effects of motion give her illustrations a great dynamic; it reflects in some illustrations Walter Trier’s dynamic scenery and depiction of motion. Characteristic for Berner’s illustration is her clear and reduced treatment of colors in her work, especially the characteristic “Berner-red” can be observed. Her art of illustration is unique...