NY: Rochester

by in Art-to-Art Palette NewsWire/AAPNW, At the Galleries, Palette News Arts Network/PNAN, PaletteBoards Section, Storybook Section
Tibor Gergely, illustration for The Great Big Fire Engine Book (1950). Random House, Inc. Gouache and watercolor.
Tibor Gergely, illustration for The Great Big Fire Engine Book (1950). Random House, Inc. Gouache and watercolor.

 

WHERE: Memorial Art Gallery.

WHEN: On view through January 4, 2015.

Golden Legacy: 65 Years of Golden Books

BRIEF ABOUT: This major traveling exhibition represents the most extensive public showing ever of original illustration art from American publishing’s best loved picture-book series, Little Golden Books. Fifty-seven masterpieces of original illustration art by these and other artists were chosen from the vast Random House archive, including examples from such picture-book classics as Tootle, Home for a Bunny, The Kitten Who Thought He Was a Mouse, The Color Kittens and I Can Fly.

Aurelius Battaglia, illustration for Little Boy with a Big Horn (1950). Random House, Inc. Gouache.
Aurelius Battaglia, illustration for Little Boy with a Big Horn (1950). Random House, Inc. Gouache.

     Little Golden Books was launched in 1942, during the first full year of America’s involvement in the Second World War. They made high-quality illustrated books available at affordable prices for the first time to millions of young children and their parents.

Elizabeth Orton Jones, illustration for Little Red Riding Hood (1948). Random House, Inc. Gouache, watercolor, colored pencil and charcoal.
Elizabeth Orton Jones, illustration for Little Red Riding Hood (1948). Random House, Inc. Gouache, watercolor, colored pencil and charcoal.

     Among the artists who have contributed to the ambitious series are greats of the European emigre community (including Feodor Rojankovsky and Tibor Gergely); alumni of the Walt Disney Studios (including Gustaf Tenggren, Martin Provensen, J.P. Miller and Mary Blair), who came East for the artistic freedom and control associated with picture-book making; and such American originals as Garth Williams, Eloise Wilkin, Elizabeth Orton Jones, Richard Scarry and Bob Staake.

MORE DETAILS: For more information, www.mag.rochester.edu/calendar. Editor’s note: This exhibit was organized by the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, Abilene, Texas. http://nccil.org.

 

Gustaf Tenggren, illustration for The Lion’s Paw (1959). Random House, Inc. Gouache and watercolor.
Gustaf Tenggren, illustration for The Lion’s Paw (1959). Random House, Inc. Gouache and watercolor.

Editor’s note: Not enough “stars” to rate this exhibition. I hope it makes its way around not only the USA, but the globe. Found it to be a memory lane emotional-educational bonanza – the highest of mental highs.