“Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and Friends: The Art of Bernard Waber” opens at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, in Amherst, on March 18.
Never before seen artwork of Bernard Waber, author and illustrator of more than 30 picture books, many of them featuring a popular, sensitive crocodile, will be on display in an upcoming exhibit at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst. The exhibit, “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and Friends: The Art of Bernard Waber” opens at the museum on March 18.
The exhibit has been curated by noted children’s book historian, author and critic Leonard S. Marcus, and features 85 of Waber’s illustrations.
"Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and Friends: The Art of Bernard Waber," copyright 1987 by Bernard Waber “He was one of the major picture book artists of the last 40 years,” Marcus said. “I always thought his work was a lot of fun and very tender. It has a strong emotional quality that readers can connect with, both children and adults.”
Waber, whose books include “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,” “Ira Sleeps Over,” “Courage,” and “The House on East 88th Street,” died last May at the age of 91. His daughter, Paulis Waber illustrated his 2010 “Lyle Walks the Dogs” when macular degeneration started to interfere with his ability to illustrate..
His “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” also inspired an animated musical that was shown on HBO and a theatrical musical staged by Theatreworks USA.
Marcus, a founding trustee of the Carle, reviews for Parenting, as well as The New York Times Book Review, and is author of a number of books on children’s literature. His did the annotated edition of “The Phantom Tollbooth.” Other of his works include “Show Me a Story!,” “How Golden Books Won Children’s Hearts,” and “The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom.”
Marcus said the upcoming exhibition will include a number of decades-old art.
“He saved most of his original art going back to the early 1960s,” said Marcus of Waber. “I had access to hundreds of pieces of original art — his sketches and also the paintings he did on Sundays, for his own pleasure.”
The creatioin of Waber’s famous Lyle, the Crocodile seems rooted in an early love.
“Bernie was an animal lover going back to his childhood in Philadelphia,” Marcus said. “He spent time at the Philadelphia Zoo as a child, and did a number of books involving cats, dogs and mice. We have some really interesting examples from those books.”
Marcus said Waber stood out among picture book authors and illustrators.
“Not everyone knows how to tell a story in 32 pages,” Marcus said. “It’s actually a very different art form. You need the ability to distill your thoughts to say in a word or line, what a novelist would take a paragraph to say.”
Marcus said Waber, who grew up in the Depression era, also never gave up his day job, working on design for Life magazine and People magazine.
Waber often visited the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, on his lunch break, and the influences of what he saw there can be seen in some of his work, Marcus said.
“There are some images that are reminiscent of Pierre Bonnard, the French painter,” Marcus said. “He had a couple of books where he splattered paint and used biomorphic shapes (used in abstract expressionist art).”
Marcus said Waber’s personality shone through in his stories.
“It’s rare when you find someone who is both funny and emotionally deep,” Marcus said. “He was one of them.”
In addition to a variety of children’s book illustrations, the exhibit will feature a sampling of his early design work for Time Inc. and Conde Nast. The exhibit will also has a 40-page catalog featuring Waber’s last interview.
“Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and Friends: The Art of Bernard Waber,” will be on display at the Carle, from March 18 through June 8. Support for the exhibition has been provided by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art is the only full-scale museum of its kind in the United States, collecting, preserving and presenting picture books and picture book illustrations from around the world.
The museum, normally closed Mondays, is open Feb. 17, 2014, for school vacation week. Normal weekday hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $9 for adults, $6 for children under 18, teachers and seniors, and $22.50 for a family (two adults and two children). For more information, visit www.carlemuseum.org or call (413) 658-1100.
Related:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/books/bernard-waber-childrens-author-is-dead-at-91.html?_r=0