Artist and author Maurice Sendak illustrated nearly 100 picture books over a career that spanned more than six decades. His classics include Chicken Soup with Rice, Where the Wild Things Are, and In the Night Kitchen. He also created art to illustrate the work of other well-known authors including Hans Christian Andersen, Leo Tolstoy, and Herman Melville. As a child, Sendak began illustrating stories inspired by his neighbors and family. Those long-held childhood memories continued to influence the artist’s work throughout his award-winning career.
From Sept. 5 through Oct. 18, “The Art of Maurice Sendak” will be celebrated at the St. Louis Public Library and will include activities, exhibits, speakers and live performances by Stages Performing Arts Academy. One of the centerpieces of the program, "Maurice Sendak: The Memorial Exhibition — 50 Years, Works, Reasons” unveiled in 2013 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Where the Wild Things Are, will be on display in the Carnegie Room of the Central Library. According to Patty Carleton, the library’s director of youth services, the exhibit will include a life-sized version of Max’s bedroom and private boat, an interactive wall where kids can use technology to bring their own monsters to life, and speakers including Steven Brezzo, owner and curator of the memorial exhibition, and Leonard Marcus, author of Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom and Maurice Sendak: A Celebration of the Artist and His Work. Here, Carleton shares her thoughts on the library’s programming and the artist who inspired it.
Why do you think Sendak’s work, particularly Where the Wild Things Are, resonates more than 50 years later?
There are a couple of reasons. I think because there are now 50 years’ worth of children who have grown up with this book and these images. Sendak respected children. He didn't sugarcoat things. He didn't think everything had to be sweetness and light. He acknowledged that, essentially, the wild rumpus is a temper tantrum -- a ferocious temper tantrum -- which is a scary thing in a kid's life. When they get so out of control and they don't necessarily like to be out of control, it can be scary. Sendak empowered kids to have a temper tantrum and still be loved. When Max goes back to his room after sailing in and out of weeks and making himself king of all the wild things, his mother still loves him and his supper is still hot and it’s waiting for him. And that reassurance, without being saccharin … I think really sticks with kids.
And I know a lot of people for whom this story has continued to resonate when they are teenagers and they are in that exact same position again. ‘I’m out here in the world and it’s scary and it’s dark and there are monsters. I want to know that, when I come home, someone still loves me. At the same time, I can still be an actor and be powerful in that wild world.’ I think that really grabs people.
You have included pieces inspired by Sendak’s work from 35 local artists. What types of pieces were you looking for?
We were pretty specific. They had to be 8 by 10. They had to be two-dimensional visual art -- no sculpture, no poetry, no carvings. But I don't think we're going to get copies, or really good renditions, of Sendak's art. I think we're going to get other people's monsters. There are all different kinds of artists -- graphic artists, illustrators, people who have never worked in children's books at all, ad people. But the pieces all have sort of the same weight because they're the same size. I think that will be inspiring, especially to teenagers. This isn't just an exhibit for little kids who want to play in Max’s bedroom and sail away on his boat. Kids who grew up with the book and are thinking -- ‘Am I an artist? Can I be an artist? How do you do that?’ -- will have a lot of current examples of art and of how people can be inspired by a really powerful book.
What do you hope people take away from these exhibits, performances, and activities as a whole?
I'm hoping that they gain an appreciation for a really great creator of children's books and I hope they look into the other books that he did, and then the other authors and artist he worked with in the same time frame -- like Crockett Johnson, who wrote Harold and the Purple Crayon. So I hope it is a lure into the world of picture books in general. I hope that it's a family experience. There is the richness of the original art to engage the adults and to have adults and children talking about the pieces and the quotes from people like Walt Disney, who were inspired and influenced by Sendak. There are a lot of conversation starters. And any time you get the adults talking with kids and listening to what kids have to say, I think that's pretty important.
It sounds like there’s something fun for everyone.
I'm looking forward to it. We've been planning for a year and a half and I am ready. I guess that's one of my other goals. People think libraries and think of quiet. They think of libraries and they think-- temple of learning. Well, I think libraries and I think, ‘Let’s make some noise.’ Yes, it's a place of learning but learning is supposed to be fun. Let the wild rumpus start.
Note: On Oct. 1, Leonard Martin, the children’s literature historian and critic who knew Maurice Sendak, will be a guest of the library. He will discuss his book Dear Genius.
