Press Release Fun: Jules Feiffer Art!

The Carle Announces Fall Exhibition

Growing Every Which Way But Up:

The Children’s Book Art of Jules Feiffer

(Amherst, MA) August 11, 2011-  The Carle is pleased to announce a forthcoming exhibition featuring cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter, and children’s book author and illustrator Jules Feiffer. Growing Every Which Way But Up: The Children’s Book Art of Jules Feiffer will open in Amherst, Massachusetts on October 25, 2011 and remain on view until January 22, 2012.

As an artist and writer of probing wit and uncommon humanity, Jules Feiffer has made a breathtakingly varied contribution to America’s cultural life for over 50 years. From his Village Voice editorial cartoons to his plays and screenplays including Little Murders and Carnal Knowledge, Feiffer’s satirical outlook has helped define us politically, sexually, and socially. He has excelled in journalism, film, and off Broadway. This exhibition will focus on his equally prodigious talents as an author and illustrator of children’s books.

From illustrations that he did to complement Norton Juster’s 1961 uproarious classic, The Phantom Tollbooth, to his current picture-book collaborations with his daughter Kate, Feiffer’s artwork for children is all the more expressive for the years of fatherhood, cartoon-drawing, teaching, and storytelling that informs it. Leonard S. Marcus, the children’s book historian and critic and author of the upcoming The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth, is guest curator for the show. “Feiffer finds that picture-book artists and cartoonists live by many of the same imperatives: the need to instantly grab the reader’s attention, the need to simplify without oversimplifying, and the need to keep the action moving,” Marcus said. Marcus, who wrote  an article about the exhibition for the fall edition of Fine Books & Collections Magazine, says  “Tracing the arc of Feiffer’s latest creative adventure has for me, as the Carle exhibition’s curator, been an exciting chance not only to share with museum-goers some of contemporary children’s literature’s most keenly irreverent graphics, but also to show that ‘kids’ book illustration’ can be just as poignant–and pert–as the many and varied other forms of narrative art that Feiffer has practiced so brilliantly over the years.”

Feiffer’s far-ranging credits include a Pulitzer Prize for his cartoons and an Obie for his plays. The animated version of Munro, which he scripted, won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Related programming and events:

Public Art Program

Dots that Walk, Lines that Talk

October 27 – November 6

Drawing inspiration from Paul Klee’s quote, “A line is a dot that went for a walk” and Jules Feiffer’s lines that twist, tumble and turn, have fun creating your own visual journey with marking tools and water color wash.

Free with Museum admission

Members’ Opening Reception

Growing Every Which Way But Up:  The Children’s Book Art of Jules Feiffer

A Conversation with Jules Feiffer and Guest Curator Leonard S. Marcus

Saturday, November 5, 2011

5:00 – 7:00 pm

Presentation at 6:15

Feiffer Gallery Tour with Jules Feiffer

(1 PDPs)

Sunday, November 6, 2011

1:00  pm

Book signing to follow

Free with Museum Admission

Phantom Tollbooth Day with Norton Juster

Sunday, November 20, 2011

10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Presentation at 1:00 pm

Book signing to follow

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of this perennial favorite of children and adults with a conversation with Norton Juster and activities throughout the Museum.

Free with Museum Admission

Meet Jules Feiffer and Kate Feiffer

(1 PDP)

Thursday, December 8, 2011

6:00 – 8:00 pm

Presentation at 7:00 pm

Book signing to follow

Free

About The Eric Carle Museum

Together with his wife Barbara, Eric Carle, the renowned author and illustrator of more than 70 books, including the 1969 classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar, founded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art as the first full-scale museum in this country devoted to national and international picture book art, conceived and built with the aim of celebrating the art that we are first exposed to as children. Through the exploration of images that are familiar and beloved, it is the Museum’s goal to provide an enriching, dynamic, and supportive context for the development of literacy and to foster in visitors of all ages and backgrounds the confidence to appreciate and enjoy art of every kind.

The Museum–which houses three galleries dedicated to rotating exhibitions of picture book art, a hands-on Art Studio, a Reading Library, an Auditorium, a Café, and a Museum Shop–is located at 125 West Bay Road, Amherst, MA. Museum hours are Tuesday through Friday 10 am to 4 pm, Saturday 10 am to 5 pm, and Sunday 12 noon to 5 pm. The Museum is open Mondays in July and August. Admission is $9 for adults, $6 for children under 18, and $22.50 for a family of four. For further information and directions, call 413-658-1100 or visit the Museum’s website at www.carlemuseum.org.

Images are available for reproduction. For additional press information and /or images, please contact Sandy Soderberg, Marketing Manager (413) 658-1105 or sandys@carlemuseum.org

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