NYAB Event - Peter Sís "The Conference Of The Birds"

Peter Sís "The Conference Of The Birds"

RYAN LEE

This event has ended.

Mary Ryan Gallery presents an exhibition of new work by award-winning artist and author Peter Sís. The exhibition will feature original artwork published in Sís' brand new book, The Conference of the Birds (Penguin Press), Sís' interpretation of the twelfth-century Sufi epic poem of the same title and his first book for adults.

This exhibition will include a selection of published drawings along with objects that Sís created in the process of writing the book. Sís, the author of twenty children's books, is known for his finely detailed drawings which often include maps and mazes, meticulous stippling, playful borders, and intricately drawn worlds. Using watercolor and ink, he translates this classic tale of the human journey and the quest for answers into something distinctly his, imbued with grace and spirituality that speaks to all.

Sís first discovered the tale of the birds when he was illustrating Jorge Luis Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings (Penguin Press, 2005). One of the illustrations was of Simorgh, the king that the birds journey to find. Sís says, "I immediately thought, 'what a fitting story of the human struggle to find a perfect king, a guru, a president who would make sense of our lives...The poem is 800 years old; the story is ancient....yet we are still looking today."

Born in Brno, in the former Czechoslovakia, in 1949, Sís is an internationally acclaimed artist, author, and filmmaker. He has been the recipient of numerous awards such as the New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year (seven time winner), The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal, and the Caldecott Honor. In 2007 his autobiographical children's book, The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, was the story of Sís's struggle to preserve artistic freedom growing up in Communist Prague, and his eventual
liberation through art.

[Image: Peter Sís "The Valley of Unity" (published in "The Conference of the Birds) (2011)]