Leo Lionni Catalog Garners National Press
January 16, 2024—Norman Rockwell Museum is pleased to highlight recent national coverage of Leo Lionni: Storyteller, Artist, Designer, the 184-page volume published by Abbeville Press that accompanies the Museum’s first major American retrospective of the artist.
Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reviewed the exhibition catalog as a significant new exploration and celebration of Leo Lionni’s protean creative career.
“Twenty-four years after his death, the book lowers the velvet ropes separating the quadrants of Leo Lionni’s creative output,” writes Elisabeth Egan in the New York Times Book Review. “Who knew that the creator of the most recognizable mice since Stuart Little also dreamed up the prototype for Sports Illustrated? … Lionni had a rare ability to change shades—and retain his signature vibrancy—while moving, seemingly effortlessly, from one realm to another.”
Times editors and critics also selected Leo Lionni: Storyteller, Artist, Designer as one of nine new book recommendations. “This survey of the artist and illustrator’s legacy goes far beyond the children’s books for which he’s known, including sculpture, design work and more,” they write in “Editors’ Choice,” a weekly column of suggested reading.
In addition, the Wall Street Journal published an in-depth review by Meghan Cox Gurdon. The article explores Lionni’s nuanced feelings about the relationship between his children’s books and his art and design work. Gurdon concludes: “Yet for years he remained ambivalent about making children’s books. … Only at 80, Annie Lionni writes, did her grandfather feel secure enough in his legacy to embrace the intertwining of his creative inventions, what she herself now sees as ‘variations on a theme.’”
Leo Lionni: Storyteller, Artist, Designer features essays by the exhibition curators and other scholars, as well as an introduction by the artist’s granddaughter. The volume is illustrated with abundant examples of his work, including many little-seen items from the Lionni family archives.
The catalog accompanies Between Worlds: The Art and Design of Leo Lionni, a groundbreaking retrospective that explores the three major domains of Lionni’s art and career: modernist graphic design and art direction; globally beloved children’s books; and personal art inspired by nature. Between Worlds is on view at Norman Rockwell Museum through May 27.
Shop for the catalog here. Learn more about the Leo Lionni exhibition here.
PRESS CONTACTS:
Margit Hotchkiss, Chief Marketing Officer
presscontact@nrm.org; 413.931.2240
Audrey Hackett, PR Counsel
ayhackett@gmail.com
Images and interviews available upon request