Leo Lionni, a painter, sculptor, graphic designer, educator, and writer and illustrator of children’s books, was a member of the summer arts faculty at Black Mountain College in 1946. Lionni was born in Amsterdam, Holland in 1910 to an Italian family.

Although he received a doctorate degree in economics in 1935 from the University of Genoa, he devoted himself to advertising design. With political unrest in Italy, he immigrated in 1939 to Philadelphia where he took a position with the N.W. Ayer advertising agency. He eventually acquired major accounts including Ford Motors and Chrysler Plymouth.

He also designed ads for Ladies Home Journal. Lionni commissioned works by Saul Steinberg, Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning and Fernand Léger. He later was art director for the Container Corporation's “International Series.” From 1948 through 1960, he was art director of Fortune magazine and designer of other Time/Life publications.

He also maintained outside clients, including the Museum of Modern Art, for which he designed the Family of Man catalogue. Lionni returned to Italy where he wrote and illustrated children’s books. He also continued to sculpt and paint. Lionni is known for more than forty children’s books, including Inch by Inch, Swimmy, and Frederick.

He received the American Institute of Graphic Arts Gold Medal in 1984 and was a four-time winner of the prestigious Caldecott Honor Book award. Lionni died in 1999.

Black Mountain College Project

Mary Emma Harris interviewed Leo in 1978 and the transcript is available from Appalachian State University under The Mary Emma Harris and Black Mountain College Project, Inc. Oral History collection.

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