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Kid stuff

Pictures tell a thousand tales

by Leon Nigrosh

TELLING STORIES WITH PICTURES: THE ART OF CHILDREN'S BOOK ILLUSTRATION At the DeCordova Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, through December 28.

Usually when you think of children's books, you imagine them piled next to stuffed animals in the bedroom or on shelves in a library or bookstore. You don't think of them mounted on the walls of a major art museum. After all, children's books are just for fun or learning the ABCs. But they actually offer more than a momentary respite from a parent's or child's hectic day, they create imaginary worlds, bring insights to the real world, teach morals and values, and provide a few giggles.

Because these books are for young people, they do all of these things with lots of pictures. And since each of these individual pictures is, by definition, a work of art, curator Rachel Rosenfield Lafo has filled the DeCordova's galleries and corridors with almost 200 such drawings and paintings by 30 New England artists and illustrators. This wonder-filled exhibit is successful on many levels. It is a real treat for youngsters to see so many of their favorite characters reproduced in the open books on display and in numerous large-scale, original artworks.

The show is also a nostalgia trip for the not so young, recalling special characters from the past. It can also be a re-educational experience for us as well. You may remember George and Martha, the two hippos, but do you remember the author's name? It's James Marshall -- who also gave us the Stupids, that lovably confused family.

The exhibit is an opportunity to discover the diversity in styles, materials, and techniques involved. Some artists, like David Macaulay and Edward Gorey, still use standard pen-and-ink drawing to make their point. Gorey, author of The Epiplectic Bicycle and animator of PBS's Mystery! title sequence, manages to inject a bit of the sinister into even his simplest illustrations. Something is not quite right in his small line drawing of a little boy eating cereal in The Shrinking of Treehorn. At the other end of the scale, self-taught artist Dean Morrissey creates large, Baroque-framed oil paintings that rival the Dutch masters for their luminous color and rich detail. His Redd Rocket, a toy wagon rigged with a sail, is rendered in that 17th-century vision -- bright light against a dark backdrop -- and even contains a cluster of fruit that could have been painted by Judith Leyster herself.

Other artists create their images without using either brush or pen. Both Molly Bang and Salley Mavor construct three-dimensional models that are then photographed and used as illustrations in their books. For just one picture in her story One Fall Day, Bang built and assembled dolls and tiny furniture elements into a five-foot-long diorama. Mavor uses fabric swatches, yarn, driftwood, and real pebbles to create figures and backgrounds for her shadow-box reliefs used in making Mary Had a Little Lamb and The Way Home.

Eric Carle, author/illustrator of the world famous The Very Hungry Caterpillar, makes his remarkable images by cutting and pasting painted tissue paper. Giles Laroche must have used a very tiny pair of scissors to cut his intricately detailed paper reliefs, while Holly Meade just tore up her paper collages to illustrate Rata Pata Scata Fata.

With so many artists and so much work being shown, you must plan to spend some time browsing through the 80-plus books, reading the stories (like William Steig's humorous Shrek, a tale of an ugly guy who finds happiness with "a stunningly ugly princess"), and trying to find the pictures that match the originals.

All of the work has been placed on the walls 10 inches lower than usual, with the books secured to shelves below them. Although this arrangement may make the exhibit particularly user-friendly for the younger set, a lot of visitors will have to stoop to get a good view. The more uninhibited and care-free will simply revert to the past, get down on our knees, and just enjoy this delightful show.

The DeCordova Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Call (617) 259-8355.