'Wild Things' and other Sendak classics at Biggs Museum
Decades before the lovable, wisecracking monsters of "Monsters, Inc." delighted children on the big screen, children's book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak's toothy rumpus of "Wild Things" enthralled young readers while scaring their parents with heavy themes of doubt, abandonment and loneliness.
Published in 1963, "Where the Wild Things Are" went on to win the Caldecott Medal for best American picture book for children, was translated into dozens of languages and proved that well-behaved heroines and sappy, happy endings weren't the only formulas for a successful children's book.
Instead, Sendak, the son of Polish immigrants who endured chronic illness and lost family during the Holocaust, pierced the dark, chaotic world of a child's mind, extracting the sublime from the reality of suffering.
Through Sept. 11, the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover hosts a retrospective exhibition of the iconic illustrator's work, "50 Years, 50 Works, 50 Reasons." In partnership with the Dover Public Library, the exhibition spans both venues and features personal drawings, including Sendak's A+ illustrated school book report on "Macbeth," opera set designs; and fun character cutouts (for selfies, of course) from the artist's nearly 60-year career.
Quotes from comedienne Whoopi Goldberg, former President Bill Clinton and Sendak's former friends and colleagues describe how the Brooklyn-bred visionary told truth-filled tales that never insulted children's intelligence or emotional complexity. President Barack Obama has called "Wild Things" "one of my favorite classic books of all time."
The traveling exhibition, culled from private collections, kicked off in 2013 on the 50th anniversary of "Wild Things'" publication. The Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, organized a similar tribute for the book's 40th anniversary. Sendak died in 2012 at the age of 83, five years after the death of his longtime partner Eugene Glynn. The couple never had children.
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It's a toss-up as to which generation is more enamored with the exhibit, said Biggs curator Ryan Grover. Children are hypnotized by the plucky Max, a boy in a wolf costume who makes the best of his bedroom punishment by conjuring up an island of menacing monsters that he eventually dominates. Nostalgic parents, meanwhile, remember "Wild Things" as a thrilling adventure, which spawned an animated short, 1980 opera and 2009 live-action film directed by Spike Jonze. A free outdoor screening of the film is scheduled for Sept. 3 at 8 p.m. on Loockerman Plaza in Dover.
Other events include a Saturday breakfast with Sendak's deliciously grotesque monsters organized by the Dover library, where a cardboard monster with a yellow-striped shirt dangles from a vine by the circulation desk. On Aug. 24, the Biggs will present a lecture by an expert on fairy tales and mythology on the macabre elements of Sendak's stories. The "Wild Things" were based on Sendak's European relatives who had blood-stained eyes, yellow teeth and pinched his cheeks incessantly, the author said.
The Dover exhibition found a built-in audience earlier this month when thousands of Comic Con attendees dressed as the Statue of Liberty, Japanese anime characters and furry creatures streamed into both venues.
Sendak "lent himself and his talents to so many worthwhile initiatives," said Grover, citing the artist's influence on the performing arts. In 1975, Sendak penned the book and lyrics to complement Carole King's music for the "Really Rosie" musical, based on several Sendak books. The plot centers on a sassy Brooklyn girl with a tendency to exaggerate everything. Nearly a decade later, Sendak designed the set for a Pacific Northwest Ballet production of "The Nutcracker," which later became a film.
Widely considered one of the most important children's book authors of the 20th century, Sendak got his start drawing on cardboard shirt forms that belonged to his father, a tailor, and later built window displays for the famed New York toy store F.A.O. Schwarz. By the 1970s, Sendak became a costume and stage designer for operas by Mozart, Prokofiev, Ravel and more.
He was known to answer all his fans' letters. When a young boy professed his love for the "Wild Things," Sendak responded with an original drawing. The child promptly ate it.
"That to me was one of the highest compliments I've ever received," the artist said at the time.
"If children are different from us, they are more spontaneous," Sendak told The New York Times in 1987. "Grown-up lives have become overlaid with dross."
Born in 1928 – the same year as his inspiration, Mickey Mouse – Sendak collaborated with more lighthearted contemporaries like Jim Henson and Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss). By contrast, Sendak's heady work dealt with the psychic intensity of growing pains. He portrayed children tackling nightmarish challenges while straddling the worlds of reality and fantasy. In negotiating the unknown, Sendak pleaded: Harness your imagination.
In "We Are All in the Dumps With Jack and Guy” (1993), a parable about homeless children during the AIDS epidemic, droopy stars encircle a frowning moon. Sendak's cautionary tale, "Pierre" (1962), showed us how an "I don't care" attitude can land you in the belly of a lion. His "In the Night Kitchen" (1970), featuring naked images of children, was banned by libraries. It centers on a young boy named Mickey who is buried in a mass of batter.
As author Steven Brezzo described the artist: "Sendak is every child's reclusive and wondrous uncle – rarely seen, cranky, beguiling, full of messy tales and not above scaring the bejesus out of you."
As he aged, Sendak grew more curmudgeonly, according to those who knew him. He resided in a white clapboard home and studio in the Connecticut countryside with his faithful dog Herman (named after Herman Melville).
That home in Ridgefield is where Sendak envisioned a museum devoted to his work. In 2014, Sendak's estate reclaimed the bulk of his collection, which had been on loan for nearly 50 years to the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia. In 1967, Sendak selected the Rittenhouse Square location as the repository for 10,000 works of art, books, manuscripts and more. Now, the two entities are feuding in court over millions of dollars' worth of books.
A child of the Depression, Sendak cringed when people labeled him the "kiddie-book man." Twenty-two of his titles were anointed New York Times best illustrated books of the year.
His second-to-last book, "Bumble-Ardy" (2011), tells the story of a pig orphaned after his parents are eaten.
In true subversive Sendak fashion, the hapless swine throws himself a rollicking birthday party.
Contact Margie Fishman at (302) 324-2882, on Twitter @MargieTrende or mfishman@delawareonline.com.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Maurice Sendak Memorial Exhibition
WHEN: Through Sept. 11.
WHERE: Biggs Museum of American Art, 406 Federal St. in Dover. Dover Public Library, 35 E. Loockerman St.
INFO: Biggs admission: Adults, $10; seniors, $8; children ages 12 and under are free. Through Sept. 11, the museum offers free admission for two adults who accompany at least one child. (302) 674-2111 or biggsmuseum.org. Dover library entrance is free. (302) 736-7030 or www.doverpubliclibrary.org.