Each Miffy painting was a very technical but minimal piece,Ms Van Ooyen said.
"He has created this whole language and world,and he has influenced designers and artists around the world because of that."
Bruna was ahead of his time,Ms Van Ooyen said,as was Miffy.
"She is a pictogram. She’s a nimble symbol,"she said.
"When you think of the 1950s,you think ofMad Men, when that busy advertising world was coming into its own.
"Also,when you think of other artists working in America –[Roy] Lichtenstein and[Andy] Warhol also used advertising in their artworks."
Bruna illustrated cheap detective novels before creating Miffy.
"He could have,like Warhol,moved on to become a contemporary artist – and he is an artist – but he chose to stay within the genre of children’s books rather than canvas."
Ms Van Ooyen has also chosen to explore the influence Bruna has had on contemporary Australian artists.
"That has really surprised me,that this project is really generating new knowledge around certain artists'practices that we didn't realise,"Ms Van Ooyen said.
She gave the example of prominent Australian sculptor Nell.
"She is deeply influenced by Dick Bruna,"she said.
"And once you know that,it is hard to move past her work,knowing the influence of Bruna and Miffy.
"When she was at art school in the 1990s,she actually wrote a letter to Dick Bruna and sent a photograph of one of her artworks at the end of her degree,telling him he had been a major influence on her work.
"Bruna sent a letter back and that is one of Nell’s most cherished objects.
"And that is in the exhibition."
Miffy&Friends is at the Queensland University of Technology Art Museum from November 21 to March 14,2021. Further detailshere.
The exhibition also features at Bunjil Place Gallery in Melbourne from April 3 to June 13,2021.