Alphavitario: The picture reading book amongst compelling works of the past.

My work is influenced by historical printmaking and vintage children’s books usually found in charity shops and on dusty shelves of second-hand bookstores.When I pick up a picture book, I firstly look at the work of the illustrator. A wealth of illustrative techniques such as woodcuts, lithographs, pen & ink, watercolours-gouache and a variety of styles and personal interpretations can be an interesting visual study to engage with. 

“Picture-story books convey their messages via two types of media, the art of writing and the art of illustrating. At a simple level, a child can look at the work of an illustrator and make comparisons while picking up narrative clues in pictures.”

When children start school, themes like “Ourselves” and “Home” are often chosen to provide a framework for teaching methodologies and several children’s books are supporting this narrative in classroom curriculum today. In my research looking to find influential vintage picture books from the past I came across the Alphavitarion, illustrated in 1948 by the Greek artist and lithographer Kostas Grammatopoulos. “Alphavitarion” translates from Greek as the alphabet book. It was published by the Organisation of schoolbooks in 1949 in Greece and later won first prize at the International Symposium of Education and the International Exhibition of Laeken in Belgium. In 1955 Grammatopoulos illustrated the next reading textbook, used for over twenty years. Both books hold a journey of 25 years in Greek schools.

Traditionally in the Greek educational system reading was taught through alphabet books (alphavitaria) and reading books (anagnostika). These books represented two different methods of development in reading skills. Alphabet books were used in the first year of primary school and aimed to introduce five to six year olds to read the letters of the alphabet, syllables and simple words. Grammatopoulos illustrated two compelling alphabet books and visually inspired generations permeate that “learning is best when enjoyable “ a notion firstly promulgated in the 18th century by European Educator Bernhard Basedow.

Grammatopoulos showed dedication in helping children embrace the familiar as vital part of their education. In his illustrative work, he presented Greek culture as he drew out of the cultural traditions of Greece and lithographed depictions of family life, school life, outdoor play, community and structured architectural spaces in a cheery contour of composition and colours.

Back in 1949 when the first Alphavitarion was published, Greece had only started recovering from 1940 ‘s involvement in the second world war and later civil war that had just ended in 1949 when the first Alphavitarion was published. 

The happy images that brought idealist scenes of Greece as a secure place for children in the Alphavitarion had not been in many cases the everyday reality at home or school.

Photographs by Voula Papaioannou from the Benaki’s museum archive, depict children in 1946 without shoes, classrooms poorly equipped and a general feeling of poverty and trauma. At the same time children’ s zest for life and learning are reflected in her captions.

Photographs by Voula Papaioannou from the Benaki’s museum archive 

“Voula Papaioannou's work is sectioned in humanitarian photography for telling the story of everyday life in 1950’s Greece. After the liberation, of war she toured the ravaged Greek countryside recording the difficult living conditions faced by it’s inhabitants. She often exceeded her brief, immortalising the faces and personal stories of ordinary people in photographs that stressed dignity rather than suffering.”

Both in similar approach to their art forms, Kostas Grammatopoulos, and Voula  Papaioannou  expressed the optimism that prevailed in the aftermath of war with respect to  the future of mankind and the restoration of traditional values. 

 “Papaioanou portrayed Greece as it was, harsh, barren, drenched in light and its inhabitants dreaming for a better future despite of their poverty.”

Grammatopoulos drew the future as the children wanted to experience it. He resembled family life, outdoor play, a safe community and structured harmonious spaces surrounded by nature. According to Bader a picture book amongst other things can be a social, cultural and historical experience for a child. He used the word experience to refer to the experience being communicated, developmentally cognitive and a relationship of connection.

Voula Papaioannou in juxtaposition with Kostas Grammatopoulos

Nodelman states that words in picture books are good at describing the relationship of details; pictures are better at giving a sense of the whole. But each can do both and help each other do both which is why fusion is so compelling.  Because they communicate different kinds of information, and because they work together by limiting each other’s meanings, words and pictures have a combative relationship; they compliment each other by virtue of their differences. As a result, the relationship between pictures and texts in picture books tends to be ironic; each speaks about matters on which the other is silent.

Grammatopoulos spoke to children with illustrations while he made learning to read enjoyable.

Giorgos Katsipodos volunteered to paint  murals inspired by the “Alphavitarion”at the exterior of a school in Patra, Greece.

 This short research made me wonder what are we to teach if we are to envision the future in pictures. The fragility of our highly technological world, a continuous children’s refugee crisis, the unexpected pandemic and evidence of climate change makes us question what matters most.

I think in these pressing times the emergent narrative to live by in a humane multicultural world is to embrace human similarities as well as differences while living sustainably to protect our planet, but for that we need to work individually as well as collectively.