Graham Percy (7 June 1938 – 4 January 2008) was a New Zealand-born artist, designer and illustrator. His work was the subject of ''The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy'', a major posthumous exhibition of his work which was shown at galleries throughout New Zealand including

City Gallery Wellington City Gallery Te Whare Toi is a public art gallery in Wellington, New Zealand. History City Gallery Te Whare Toi began its life as the Wellington City Art Gallery on 23 September 1980 in a former office block located at 65 Victoria Street, now ...

, Gus Fisher Gallery Auckland,

Sarjeant Gallery The Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui at Pukenamu, Queen's Park Whanganui is currently closed for redevelopment. The temporary premises at Sarjeant on the Quay, 38 Taupo Quay currently house the Sarjeant Collection, and all exhibitions a ...

Whanganui, the

Rotorua Museum The Rotorua Museum Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa is a local museum and art gallery in the Government Gardens near the centre of Rotorua, New Zealand. The museum is housed in the former Bath House building which was opened in 1908 and is noted as t ...

and the Southland Museum and Art Gallery, Invercargill.

Life

Graham Percy was an artist, designer and illustrator. He was born in

Stratford, New Zealand Stratford ( mi, Whakaahurangi) is the only town in Stratford District, New Zealand, Stratford District, and the seat of the Taranaki region, in New Zealand's North Island. It lies beneath the eastern slopes of Mount Taranaki, approximately halfw ...

and studied at Elam School of Fine Arts in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. After graduating in the early 1960s, Percy worked as an illustrator for the

New Zealand School Journal The ''New Zealand School Journal'' is a periodical children's educational publication in New Zealand. Founded in 1907 by the Department of Education, it is one of the world's longest-running publications for children. Since 2013 it has been pub ...

and collaborated with other Auckland-based writers and artists. He designed the typography for a number of

Colin McCahon Colin John McCahon (; 1August 191927May 1987) was a prominent New Zealand artist whose work over 45 years consisted of various styles, including landscape, figuration, abstraction, and the overlay of painted text. Along with Toss Woollaston and ...

's exhibition invitations and set up one of New Zealand's first design consultancies with

Hamish Keith Hamish Henry Cordy Keith (born 15 August 1936) is a New Zealand writer, art curator, arts consultant and social commentator. Introduction Keith has been writing about and working with the arts in New Zealand for almost half a century. He has ...

. During this period he designed covers for ''

The End of the Golden Weather ''The End of the Golden Weather'' is a play by Bruce Mason about a boy's loss of innocence in Depression-era New Zealand. It was written for solo performance by the author but can be performed by an ensemble and was made into an award-winning ...

'' and ''The Pohutukawa Tree'' by Bruce Mason. In 1964, Percy received a scholarship to study at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

in London. From late 1964 until the end of his life, he lived and worked in London as an illustrator and artist. He was the production designer on the 1973 animated film ''

Hugo the Hippo Hugo or HUGO may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hugo'' (film), a 2011 film directed by Martin Scorsese * Hugo Award, a science fiction and fantasy award named after Hugo Gernsback * Hugo (franchise), a children's media franchise based on a ...

''. While working on the film he met his second wife, the photographer

Mari Mahr Mari Mahr (born 1941) is a Hungarian-British photographer. She was born in Santiago, Chile where her Hungarian Jewish parents had fled during World War II. After the war, the family moved back to Budapest. Mahr was inspired to study journalism by ...

. For much of his career, Percy specialised in children's books, illustrating more than 100 works for children. In later years, he produced a body of his own independent art for adults. In 1994, Chronicle Books (San Francisco) published a book of his drawings for adults, ''Arthouse''. In 2007, a further series of his drawings for adults, 'Imagined Histories' was published, supported by the

Scottish Arts Council The Scottish Arts Council ( gd, Comhairle Ealain na h-Alba, sco, Scots Airts Cooncil) was a Scottish public body responsible for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland. The Council primarily distributed funding from the ...

. Graham Percy died on 4 January 2008.

Notable works published during his lifetime

Books illustrated by Percy for children include the following: * Illustrations for ''La Belle au bois dormant'' (1977) written by Charles Perrault * Illustrations for ''When Dad cuts down the chestnut tree'' (1988) by Pam Ayres * Illustrations for the ''Fantastic Flying Journey'' (1987) and ''Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure'' (1989) by the noted author and naturalist Gerald Durrell * Illustrations for ''The Woodland Gospels According to Captain Beaky and His Band'', by Jeremy Lloyd,

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...

(1990) * Illustrations for ''A cup of starshine (1991)'' selected by Jill Bennett * Illustrations and text for ''The Cock, the mouse, and the little red hen'' (1992) * Illustrations and text for ''Lullabies: Poems and Rhymes to Dream on'', Running Press (1995) – part of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

Miniature Book Collection * Design and illustration for the series ''Graham Percy's Animal Tails'',

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

(1995) * Illustrations for the illustrated Mother Goose, Running Press (1997) * Illustrations for the

Wind in the Willows ''The Wind in the Willows'' is a children's novel by the British novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. It details the story of Mole, Ratty, and Badger as they try to help Mr. Toad, after he becomes obsessed with motorcars and gets ...

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

(1997) * Illustrations for ''The mailbox mice mystery'' (1999) by Juli Mahr * Illustrations for ''Mama tiger, Baba Tiger'' (2001) by Juli Mahr Animated film for children: * Production designer of the full-length animated film

in Hungary (1970–1972) Books for adults: 'Crime and the Law' by Bernard Brown, 1969 (18137928705)

* Illustrations for ''Crime and the law'' (1969) by Bernard Brown * Concept and illustrations for Arthouse (1996), published by

Chronicle Books Chronicle Books is a San Francisco-based American publisher of books for adults and children. The company was established in 1967 by Phelps Dewey, an executive with Chronicle Publishing Company, then-publisher of the ''San Francisco Chronicle''. ...

, reviewed in the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

, artwork exhibited at Storyopolis gallery in Los Angeles. * Concept and illustrations for Imagined Histories (2007), published by Crear, space to create, supported by the

Posthumous exhibition and book

''The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy'' was a major posthumous exhibition of Percy's work. It was developed in partnership between

and Gus Fisher Gallery, The

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

; it was curated by

Gregory O'Brien Gregory Leo O’Brien (born 1961) is a New Zealand poet, painter and editor. Life Born in Matamata in 1961, O'Brien trained as a journalist in Auckland and worked as a newspaper reporter in Northland. He graduated from the University of Auckl ...

, leading New Zealand poet, art critic and curator and winner of the 2012 Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement. ''A Micronaut in the Wide World: The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy'' is an account of Graham Percy's life and art by O'Brien. It was a finalist in the New Zealand Post Book Awards 2012 and was highly commended in the Random House New Zealand Award for Best Illustrated Book 2012. A copy of the book was donated by the Chartwell Trust to every high school in New Zealand. As of October 2013, the itinerary of the exhibition was as follows: * 4 February – 25 April 2011:

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, New Zealand * 6 May 2011 – 25 June 2011: Gus Fisher Gallery,

, New Zealand * 22 July – 28 August 2011: Millennium Art Gallery,

Blenheim, New Zealand Blenheim ( ; mi, Waiharakeke) is the most populous town in the regions of New Zealand, region of Marlborough Region, Marlborough, in the north east of the South Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of The surrounding Marlborough ...

* 10 September – 13 November 2011: Tauranga Art Gallery,

Tauranga, New Zealand Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by ...

* 19 November 2011 – 29 January 2012:

Whanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

, New Zealand * 17 February – 22 March 2012: Percy Thomson Gallery,

* 5 May – 16 July 2012:

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...

, New Zealand * 28 July – 23 September 2012: Hastings City Art Gallery,

Hastings, New Zealand Hastings (; mi, Heretaunga) is an inland city of New Zealand and is one of the two major urban areas in Hawke's Bay, on the east coast of the North Island. The population of Hastings (including Flaxmere) is (as of with a further people in H ...

* 23 November 2012 – 3 February 2013: Southland Museum and Art Gallery,

Invercargill, New Zealand Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of t ...

* 17 April – 9 June 2013: Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore, New Zealand * 15 June – 10 August 2013: Hocken Collections (''Uare Taoka o Hākena''), Dunedin, New Zealand * 17 August – 13 October 2013: The Forrester Gallery, Oamaru * 19 October 2013 – 26 January 2014: Nelson Provincial Museum, Nelson, New Zealand * 24 February – 20 April 2014: Whangarei Art Museum, Whangarei * 26 April – 15 June 2014: Puke Ariki, New Plymouth * 21 June – 10 August 2014: Aratoi, Masterton * 16 August – 23 November 2014: Waikato Museum, Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton

External links

Obituary in ''The Independent''Graham Percy's website
*

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Percy, Graham British illustrators New Zealand artists New Zealand illustrators New Zealand children's book illustrators Alumni of the Royal College of Art Elam Art School alumni 1938 births 2008 deaths