The virtuoso of relish-advanced taboo breaking
Master of the white surface: Wolf Erlbruch (1948-2022)
Quelle: REUTERS / TT News Agency
The children loved his picture book, the booksellers didn’t want to leave so much dirt on their shelves: Wolf Erlbruch became world famous with the story of the little mole, who wanted to know who hit his head. An obituary.
EThere is a worse awakening than that of Gregor Samsa, who one morning finds himself transformed into a monstrous vermin in his bed. That of the little mole, for example. A round brown sausage lands on his head, which he is sticking out of the ground to see if the sun has already risen. Which is why he sets out indignantly to find the culprit.
Every animal he consults assures that it wasn’t it, certainly not – in order to push further attacks after the protestation of innocence. The dove slaps a wet blob at his feet. The horse gives him five big apples. The rabbit shoots fifteen round beans around his ears, the cow splashes him a cake. It’s a shitty game he got himself into, through no fault of his own, debunking every marketing lie that gut has charm.
Almost cinematic storytelling
Wolf Erlbruch’s picture book story “The Little Mole Who Wanted to Know Who Went on His Head” became world famous in 1989, although the booksellers, as its creator was fond of telling, would have preferred to lie across the entrances of their bookstores, so much so not letting dirt onto their shelves. But they couldn’t fight back. The children loved Erlbruch’s story. That wasn’t just because of the lustful taboo she broke – before that, nobody had children poop on topic did.
But also because of how advanced the little mole’s campaign for justice was drawn: enlarged details, facial expressions painted with a few sure strokes, almost cinematic narration. Lots of qualities that preschool children are not yet able to analyze, but appreciate. And so they absolutely wanted to have Erlbruch’s mole story.
Worse off than Gregor Samsa: The little mole who wanted to know who hit his head
Source: Peter Hammer Verlag
It is part of the fate of children’s book artists that people are more interested in their illustrations than in themselves – even the very hungry caterpillar is known to far more people than its creator Eric Carle. And so it happened that Wolf Erlbruch only said something to those who deal professionally with children’s books. Although in 2017 he was the first German to be awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Prize, the world’s most valuable award for children’s and young adult literature. Although he has created many other wonderful books – “The Big Question” for example or “Duck, Death and Tulip”, in which he explains dying to children.
And although he was incredibly good at what he did: a master of the white surface, a virtuoso collagist who casually quoted Picasso or de Chirico in his pictures. Again and again he worked for adults, at the beginning of his career for magazines such as “Twen” or “Transatlantik”, later as an illustrator of Joyce, Benn or Goethe editions. But as is often the case with illustrators: you appreciate their work and don’t ask their names.
Wolf Erlbruch has now died in Wuppertal at the age of 74. His mole that someone hit on the head will surely live forever.