Which witch captures your imagination?: ’Along the Yellow Brick Road: The Changing Look of Oz’ at Eric Karle Museum
Which witch captures your imagination?: ’Along the Yellow Brick Road: The Changing Look of Oz’ at Eric Karle MuseumBy Jennifer Lord/ Daily News StaffSunday, July 23, 2006 When L. Frank Baum first followed the Yellow Brick Road of his imagination into the land he dubbed "Oz," his Dorothy wore silver slippers and looked absolutely nothing like Judy Garland.
Baum’s goal was to create a "modernized American fairy tale," and he knew part of the magic must lie in the story’s illustration. He worked closely with artist William Wallace Denslow to create a landscape and characters like no one had ever seen before -- resulting in the children’s classic now known as "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."
In honor of the 150th anniversary of both Baum and Denslow’s births, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst has brought together not only Denslow’s original Art Nouveau work for the book but also artwork inspired by Oz in a new exhibition, "The Wonderful Art of Oz."
"The idea was to take a deep look at the art of the first book, the Denslow material," said H. Nichols B. Clark, the museum’s founding director."This is probably the largest gathering of Denslow’s material since the left the printer’s office."
Published in 1900, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was designed to look like no other children’s book on the market. It included 24 color plates and over 100 two-color textural illustrations that change color as Dorothy and her friends traverse the yellow brick road.
According to Michael Patrick Hearn, author of "The Annotated Wizard of Oz" and guest curator for the exhibit, Denslow conceived the book as a unified work of art and paid close attention to detail as he developed the look of Oz and its characters.
The story required him to "work out and invent characters, costumes and a multitude of other details for which there is no data -- and there never can be in original fairy tales," Denslow is quoted as saying in Hearn’s essay on the exhibit. For the Scarecrow and the Tin Man, for example, he made 25 sketches before he was satisfied with their final look, which includes the detail that the Scarecrow’s left eye is always bigger than his right.
Baum and Denslow parted ways despite the success of their collaboration -- actually, it was because of it. Their egos clashed over the preparation of a musical version of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and both pushed forward with separate Oz projects. "Denslow’s Scarecrow and the Tin-Man," the illustrator’s follow-up, is little known today, while Baum’s "The Marvelous Land of Oz" was the second book in what became a 40-book series.
Many visitors to the exhibit are surprised to discover Baum actually wrote 14 Oz titles, Clark said. Denslow’s successor as illustrator, John R. Neill, went on to illustrate 35 Oz books, both with Baum and his successor, Ruth Plumly Thompson. Neill even wrote and illustrated three Oz titles on his own.
Neill’s first illustrations of Oz are largely faithful to Denslow’s style. In later books, his pen and ink drawings take on an airier feel. Where Denslow’s Dorothy is small and plump, with thick braids, Neill’s Dorothy is slender and blond, with short hair and an ever-present hair ribbon. [continue
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/artsCulture/view.bg?articleid=136091
Baum’s goal was to create a "modernized American fairy tale," and he knew part of the magic must lie in the story’s illustration. He worked closely with artist William Wallace Denslow to create a landscape and characters like no one had ever seen before -- resulting in the children’s classic now known as "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."
In honor of the 150th anniversary of both Baum and Denslow’s births, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst has brought together not only Denslow’s original Art Nouveau work for the book but also artwork inspired by Oz in a new exhibition, "The Wonderful Art of Oz."
"The idea was to take a deep look at the art of the first book, the Denslow material," said H. Nichols B. Clark, the museum’s founding director."This is probably the largest gathering of Denslow’s material since the left the printer’s office."
Published in 1900, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was designed to look like no other children’s book on the market. It included 24 color plates and over 100 two-color textural illustrations that change color as Dorothy and her friends traverse the yellow brick road.
According to Michael Patrick Hearn, author of "The Annotated Wizard of Oz" and guest curator for the exhibit, Denslow conceived the book as a unified work of art and paid close attention to detail as he developed the look of Oz and its characters.
The story required him to "work out and invent characters, costumes and a multitude of other details for which there is no data -- and there never can be in original fairy tales," Denslow is quoted as saying in Hearn’s essay on the exhibit. For the Scarecrow and the Tin Man, for example, he made 25 sketches before he was satisfied with their final look, which includes the detail that the Scarecrow’s left eye is always bigger than his right.
Baum and Denslow parted ways despite the success of their collaboration -- actually, it was because of it. Their egos clashed over the preparation of a musical version of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and both pushed forward with separate Oz projects. "Denslow’s Scarecrow and the Tin-Man," the illustrator’s follow-up, is little known today, while Baum’s "The Marvelous Land of Oz" was the second book in what became a 40-book series.
Many visitors to the exhibit are surprised to discover Baum actually wrote 14 Oz titles, Clark said. Denslow’s successor as illustrator, John R. Neill, went on to illustrate 35 Oz books, both with Baum and his successor, Ruth Plumly Thompson. Neill even wrote and illustrated three Oz titles on his own.
Neill’s first illustrations of Oz are largely faithful to Denslow’s style. In later books, his pen and ink drawings take on an airier feel. Where Denslow’s Dorothy is small and plump, with thick braids, Neill’s Dorothy is slender and blond, with short hair and an ever-present hair ribbon. [continue
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/artsCulture/view.bg?articleid=136091
