Julian Wehr (1898–1970) was known as the "American Master of Animated Books". Around 9 million copies of Wehr's books were sold in the United States and Great Britain, and were translated and sold in France, Germany, and Spain during the 1940s and 1950s.

Animated and Pop-Up Books

Wehr invented and patented the animated children's book that contained moveable paper parts using tabs, commonly read by children in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. An animated pop-up book consists of three elements: a story, colored illustrations of the text, and two or more animated illustrations with their movement mechanisms working between a double page.

Selected bibliography

Wehr created over 30 animated books, including: * * * * * * * *

Sculptor career

Trained at the Art Students League in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

during the ascendance of Picasso and other modern artists, Wehr's work reflects the abstract renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. His teacher, the noted artist

John French Sloan John French Sloan (August 2, 1871 – September 7, 1951) was an American painter and etcher. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art. He was also a member of the group known as The Eight. He is best known ...

, was a clear influence on Wehr, eschewing

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

for the more authentic abstract communication of feeling and subject matter. Wehr used a variety of media to communicate his values of racial and social justice, beauty in nature, and the complexity of the human condition. His sculptures in metal painted in simple black and white, such as "Man Woman and Child," articulate the interdependence, yet separateness of the members of the human family at a time when the nuclear family was the ideal of

American culture The culture of the United States of America is primarily of Western, and European origin, yet its influences includes the cultures of Asian American, African American, Latin American, and Native American peoples and their cultures. The U ...

. At a time of the powerful movement for racial equality, Mr. Wehr addressed racial tensions in “Oppression” with its brutal juxtaposition of forms representing the subjection of African Americans in American society. It brings to mind the memorable photographs of police dogs and fire hoses assaulting black schoolchildren in the 1960s. A fire in 1947 destroyed Wehr's studio and two years of sculpting, save for a mahogany head sculpture of an African American man Wehr had sketched once on a New York City Subway trip.

Collections and Research

Mock-ups, patents, legal documents and other materials documenting Wehr's animated book creations are housed at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. In 2002, librarians Dr. Alan Boehm and Roy Ziegler received a $4,000 research grant from the Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) to "reconstruct the life and accomplishment of a forgotten master of American book artistry and animation," Julian Wehr. "''A Julian Wehr Miscellany: Unrecorded Animated Books, Foreign-Language Animated Books, and Other Works''" was later published. The MTSU Library, Special Collections' Dimensional and Artist's Books section has a large holding, more than 40, of Wehr animated books.

Influence

The innovative

artists' book Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Overview Artists' books have employed a ...

creator Edward H. Hutchins says one of his early influences was Julian Wehr because of "the multiple movements achieved with a single tab" in his pop-up books.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wehr, Julian 1898 births 1970 deaths Children's books Artists from Brooklyn Art Students League of New York alumni Pop-up book artists