Monday, January 21, 2008

I mentioned my thoughts about Hans Bacher's Dreamworlds last week. Christian Renaut sent me the following note about that book:

[I totally subscribe to your admiration for Hans Bacher's work and his book is definitely a must. I had had the privilege to have a look at a big collection of his preliminary inspirational sketches and paintings. I had then the idea to publish a book about his work because I couldn't resign myself to think such masterpieces couldn't be seen by more people. I have always thought that the best work about "Beauty and the Beast" or "Aladdin" or even "Mulan" was his, long before the features were carried out.

Hans Bacher is a clever, tactful and dedicated draftsman, who knows everything about colour and style. He may highlight his masters and role models' work like Cy Young's, Hans is clearly on a par with them, but he is too humble to even venture to think so himself.

I will always remember the moment I could look at all these paintings, although they were (good) xeroxes and do wish I had been able to write that book about him.

But a highlight was also meeting him just as Mulan was coming out in the USA. I understand why Andreas Deja gets along so well with him, and their German childhoods don't explain everything: they both have such subtlety, finesse.

Well, wherever he is now, I'd like to tell Hans I'm so glad he did this book and now his work is available for anyone to marvel at.]

1 comment:

hans bacher said...

hello didier and christian, thank you so much for these very, very nice comments. christian, I remember when we were sitting in my office, must have been about 10 years ago. you were preparing your book LES HEROINES DISNEY, what is a must have for animators and character designers. at that time I did not really believe in a book with just my design-work. don hahn convinced me much later. and now that I am kind of 'retired' I thought it might be the 'right time'. someone in another blog critizised it as 'a vanity project that should be simply called -my artwork.' that was not my intention, I thought it was the right time to pass on some of my experience to a younger generation. that is the main reason why I am still teaching.
anyway - thank you for bringing back those memories...
my best
hans
p.s. I live in manila, philippines