By NOEL MURPHY
DISNEY’S latest retelling of The Wizard of Oz might be a provocative prequel but artist Robert Ingpen’s take on the classic is a re-crafting as brave as any ever made.
The Barwon Heads artist, whose Poppykettle tale and artwork is a fixture of Geelong folklore, has long been entranced by the story of Dorothy, Toto and The Emerald City.
But his imagining of the Oz tale looks nothing like the 1939 MGM movie featuring Judy Garland or the latest rendition, Oz the Great and Powerful, with James Franco, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz.
Robert Ingpen’s 70 colour images in Palazzo/Walker Books’ edition of Baum’s 1901 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz are whimsical, naïve, colourful and evocative. All in his imitable brush, ink and pencil handiwork.
“The 1939 film of the Wizard of Oz was the first film I remember being taken to by my parents,” Mr Ingpen recalled.
“Despite the thrill of the experience I was not convinced by the movie appearance of Dorothy’s companions – the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. I wanted them real like in the story rather than human actors in fancy dress.”
So he made them as real as he could in hand-crafted images.
Mr Ingpen has written or illustrated more than 100 books, with his contribution to children’s literature earning him a Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Illustration.
