Roger Olmos Illustrates Calvino's 'Il Barone Rampante' in New Book 'Cosimo'

Catalan artist Roger Olmos (Barcelona, 1971) has created an illustrated version of Italo Calvino's 1957 novel 'Il barone rampante', titled 'Cosimo'. Published by Logos Edizioni (Modena, 2016, 76 pages, €18.50, ISBN 9788857607894), the book features 42 images with only a single line of text: 'Dedicated to Italo Calvino and to all those who are faithful to themselves.' Olmos, who has produced around fifty award-winning illustrated books in fifteen years, draws inspiration from Brad Holland, Caza, and Brian Froud. The work alternates surrealist portraits of characters (Cosimo, father Arminio Piovasco baron of Ombrosa, mother generalessa Corradina, sister Battista, brother Biagio, beloved Viola marchesina d'Ondariva) with panoramic double-page landscapes. Though appearing as a children's picture book, it targets an adult audience familiar with the original novel and 18th-century culture. During the last Bologna Children's Book Fair, Olmos gave a lecture at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Bologna. Throughout April 2016, posters reproducing the book's images are displayed across Bologna's city center as part of the CHEAP on Board project, a teaser for the CHEAP Street Poster Art Festival running May 1–8. The illustrations bring the trees of western Liguria to the walls of Bologna, creating a fantastic hybrid.