“The Original Art” Exhibition
The Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators
This event has ended.
The Museum of Illustration at the Society of Illustrators is proud to present The Original Art, an annual exhibit celebrating the fine art of children’s book illustration.
Founded in 1980 by illustrators’ agent and art director Dilys Evans, this exhibit showcases the original art from the year’s best children’s books. The 2019 exhibit features a diverse list of books selected by a jury of outstanding illustrators, art directors, and editors. Gold and Silver Medals honoring top books and artists are determined by the jurors through a discussion and final vote.
This year’s Silver Medal winners are Frank Morrison for The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip Hop (Little Bee Books) and Sydney Smith for Small in the City (Holiday House/ Neal Porter Books). The Gold Medal is awarded to Melissa Castrillon for The Balcony (Simon & Schuster / Paula Wiseman Books).
The Original Art honors exceptional children’s book artists with two other awards each year. The Dilys Evans Founder’s Award celebrates the year’s most promising new talent in the field. The 2019 jury has selected Chris Sasaki for Paper Son: The Inspiring Story of Tyrus Wong, Immigrant and Artist (Random House Children’s Books / Schwartz & Wade Books).
Nancy Ekholm Burkert creates illustrations that are rich and realistic in detail, yet fanciful and timeless in content. Whether rendered in watercolor, or pencil and charcoal, or pen and ink, her work consistently demonstrates the meticulous research she brings to every endeavor, her ability to capture characters and settings, and her mastery of light, shadow, and depth. The first book she illustrated was James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (Knopf). She followed it with A Child’s Calendar by John Updike (also Knopf). Then she turned her attention to classics such as The Nightingale and The Fir Tree, by Hans Christian Anderson, and The Scroobious Pip by Edward Lear (all HarperCollins). Valentine and Orson, which she wrote as well as illustrated, received a Boston Globe – Horn Book Award, and her best-known, best-loved title, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: A Tale from the Brothers Grimm, was a New York Times Notable Book and a Caldecott Honor Book. (Both Farrar, Straus).
Mary Blair (1911–1978) was a trailblazing animator and designer for Disney and also worked as a graphic designer, set designer, muralist, and children’s books artist. Her modernist style, sharply defined figures, and passionate love of color are key elements in all of her work, and together they became a signature feature in the whimsical titles she illustrated for Little Golden Books. They include Baby’s House by Gelolo McHugh, The Up and Down Book, which she wrote as well as illustrated, The Golden Book of Little Verses by Miriam Clark Potter, The New Golden Song Book, compiled by Norman Lloyd, and I Can Fly by Ruth Krauss, still in print after sixty-eight years. Although the number of books she illustrated is small, critics agree that her influence on illustrators at work today is unmistakable. Her art was celebrated in exhibits at the Walt Disney Family Museum in 2014 and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in 2016.
Media
Schedule
from November 13, 2019 to January 04, 2020
Opening Reception on 2019-11-14 from 18:00