Born: 1910–1999

Education: University of Genoa, Italy

Selected honors: President, American Institute of Graphic Arts; Caldecott Honor Books (Inch by Inch, Frederick, Swimmy, Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse); American Film and Video Festival 1988 Award-Winner for Five Lionni Classics; Medal of the AIGA

Teaching: Parsons School of Design, New York

Leo Lionni achieved international renown for his paintings, graphic designs, sculptures, illustrations, and books for children. Born in Holland, Mr. Lionni did not receive formal art training. Instead, he spent much of his free time as a child in Amsterdam’s museums, teaching himself to draw.

In 1925, Mr. Lionni moved to Genoa, Italy, where his abstract paintings resulted in an invitation to exhibit with the then-cutting-edge Futurists. He was an active participant in the Modernist movement with exhibitions in Europe and America.

With fascism on the rise, Leo Lionni left Italy in 1939, relocating to the United States, settling in Philadelphia. As the art director for N. W. Ayer, Mr. Lionni designed high-profile ad campaigns for such clients as Ford and General Electric.

In 1949, he moved to New York, where he art-directed for Fortune, edited Print, and designed stores for Olivetti. Mr. Lionni was one of the founders of the Aspen Design Conference and its first international chairperson.

In 1959, in the midst of this protean career, Leo Lionni wrote and illustrated his first children’s book, Little Blue and Little Yellow, the first of over thirty children’s books and the first of three books to be named one of the Ten Best-Illustrated Books of the Year by The New York Times.