Over Rainbows and Down Rabbit Holes: The Art of Children's Books

March 15 - June 15, 2008

Docent Tours:  

June 4, 6, 12, 14 at noon.

June 1, 8, 15 at 1 pm.

This magical presentation features approximately 70 works of art created specifically for children’s books.  These original works, seen as independent creations while connecting with their literary context, inspire the imagination and celebrate the creativity of making picture books for readers of all ages.  The exhibition is drawn from the outstanding collection of picture book art assembled by Zora and Les Charles and is organized by SBMA in collaboration with The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA, the first full-scale museum in this country devoted to national and international picture book art. 

Classics in this exhibition include The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne and illustrated by Ernest Shepard, and The Travels of Babar by Jean de Brunhoff.  Works by Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, and Kay Nielsen represent the earlier golden age of illustration, while the majority of examples focus on the flowering of the genre by artists and authors working in the post-World War II period.  Trina Schart Hyman (Little Red Riding Hood), Chris Van Allsburg (Jumanji), and husband and wife team Leo and Diane Dillon (Earth Mother) are among the contemporary illustrators represented.

The breadth of works featured in the exhibition stems from Santa Barbara resident and collector, Zora Charles’s favorite stories.  So, instead of limiting the presentation to a particular subject matter, artist, or illustrative or printing technique, the assemblage offers a more human perspective – one that represents a walk through time, from childhood memories to once-again-realized, adult imagination.  “I’ve always loved to read,” writes Charles in an excerpt from her essay.  “I would always pore over the illustrations as I was reading.  Did the pictures coincide with my imagination as I read?  Or even better, did the illustrations tell me more about the story than the words did?  Did they create a world for the story to live in?  That’s where the magic begins.  Any competent artist can paint a picture to demonstrate what the words say.  But the great illustrators use the words as a key to unlock a magical, visual universe.”

Her passion for collecting began when she started attending antiquarian book fairs with her husband, Les Charles, an eager collector of rare books, more than 20 years ago.  He encouraged Zora to start her own collection of children’s books, given her background as an elementary school teacher.  She started with the Caldecott Medal winners, such as Robert Lawson and Gerald McDermott – but quickly found inspiration from Peter Glassman and James Carey of Books of Wonder, one of the largest and oldest sources of children’s publications.  As she was introduced to many of the artists of the works she was collecting, she realized that a children’s book illustration is a true art form that can stand on its own, separate from the books that inspire it.  The next thing she knew, she had the “collecting disease.”

The result of this artful ailment is certainly SBMA’s gain.  The resulting exhibition is not only a scholarly presentation of some of the finest examples of original illustrative art, but also a source of inspiration and a connection between visual and verbal literacy.  The Museum’s Education Department is excited by the opportunity to further their ongoing quest to promote visual literacy to children of all ages.  The idea that pictures can be “read” is the golden thread that runs through the countless number of education programs that the Museum offers on an ongoing basis.  An upcoming project that specifically reflects this goal is the reinstallation in March 2008 of the Robert and Marlene Veloz Children’s Gallery, which will be loosely themed around the material presented in the Over Rainbows and Down Rabbit Holes exhibition.

This exhibition has been made possible in part through generous gifts from Susan and John Sweetland, Audrey Hillman Fisher Foundation, Arthur and Carolyn Merovick (Farish Fund), William E. Weiss Foundation, and smART Families.