FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 6, 2022
PRESS CONTACT:
Margit Hotchkiss
presscontact@nrm.org; 413.931.2240
Interviews and images available upon request
June 10 through November 5, 2023
Adventures in Illustration, Puppetry, and American Pop Culture Come to
Norman Rockwell Museum with New Exhibition
Tony Sarg: Genius at Play
opens June 10, 2023
STOCKBRIDGE, MA– Norman Rockwell Museum presents Tony Sarg: Genius at Play , the first comprehensive exhibition exploring the life, art, and adventures of Tony Sarg (1880-1942), the charismatic illustrator, animator, puppeteer, designer, entrepreneur, and showman who is celebrated as the father of modern puppetry in North America and the originator of the iconic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade balloons, floats, and animated store windows. On view from June 10 through November 5, 2023, this new exhibition will present original illustrations, marionettes, animations, interactive elements, and ephemera, including stage sets, illustrated books, commercial products, and archival photographs.
Exhibition Overview
Curated by Norman Rockwell Museum Chief Curator Stephanie Haboush Plunkett and guest curator Lenore D. Miller, Curator Emerita of the George Washington University Museum, Tony Sarg: Genius at Play was organized in collaboration with the Nantucket Historical Association (NHA), who holds an extensive collection of Sarg’s original work, gifted by Sarg who was a long-time Nantucket summer resident. The exhibition will be on tour following its debut at NRM, appearing at NHA in 2024. “the Norman Rockwell Museum is honored to present Tony Sarg: Genius at Play, an exhibition that is sure to delight and surprise our visitors. The Museum is incredibly grateful for the generous exhibition support from the National Endowment for the Arts and Greylock Federal Credit Union to make this magical exhibition possible,” said NRM Director/CEO Laurie Norton Moffatt.
“Exploring themes relating to Sarg’s prolific career and ongoing influence, this theatrical installation serves as a window into the creative process and achievements of an exceptional American artist and showman,” said Curator Stephanie Plunkett. The Norman Rockwell Museum is working with local production designer, art director, concept illustrator, and puppeteer Carl Sprague as an exhibition design consultant. Sprague has worked in the art department of more than 40 films, and more than 35 of them have received Academy Award nominations.He has also designed sets for Berkshire Theatre Group, Shakespeare & Company, Oldcastle Theatre, and more. Exhibition themes include: London to New York: Sarg as Illustrator; Moving Images: Sarg’s Animations; Balloons Over Broadway: Macy’s on Parade; Puppets on Tour: Sarg’s Marionettes; Humor, Fantasy, and the Turning Page; The Big Stage: Illustrated Maps, Architectural Projects, and Two World’s Fairs; Whimsical Art for Commerce; Sarg’s Nantucket Adventures; and The Artist’s Legacy. An exhibition video and an audio tour offered in three languages featuring noted commentators enhance the visitor experience, and a richly illustrated catalog published by Abbeville Press accompanies the exhibition.
About Tony Sarg
Born in Cobán, Guatemala, on April 21, 1880, to a diplomatic family of German and English descent, Tony Sarg was surrounded by puppets in his youth as the inheritor of his grandmother’s toy collection. As a boy, he began to draw, paint, and experiment with creating and performing with marionettes. In 1887, after moving to Germany, Sarg entered a military academy, but he resigned his post at age 25 to fulfill his dream of working as an illustrator in London.
While living in Great Britain, Sarg launched a successful illustration career, but his fascination with marionettes was again piqued after attending the famous performances of Thomas Holden and his Marionettes, which he closely observed and documented. Little information existed in the early twentieth century on puppetry or its artistry and technicality, as makers carefully guarded their craft and proprietary methods. With this knowledge and fleeing anti-German sentiments in England at the outbreak of World War I, Sarg immigrated to America in 1915 with his wife, Bertha Eleanor McGowan, and their young daughter Mary.
In New York, Sarg immersed himself in the worlds of art and publishing and received illustration commissions from The Saturday Evening Post, Boy’s Life, American Girl, Ladies’ Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and Vanity Fair, among others, but he distinguished himself from other artists through puppetry, giving his first performance in his studio in the famed Flatiron Building. In 1917, he began performances of Franz von Pocci’s The Three Wishes, and in 1919, The Rose and the Ring opened on Broadway. In 1921, Rip Van Winkle became the first of his large touring shows, followed by Don Quixote, Treasure Island, The Chinese Willow Plate, and Ali Baba. His production of Alice in Wonderland was especially popular, playing to millions at the Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago in 1933. Sinbad the Sailor, Robinson Crusoe, and The Mikado were among his other productions, with Robin Hood(1939) as the last, due to the company’s financial challenges.
Of Sarg’s body of work, puppeteer and historian Paul McPharlin noted that it “set up an ideal of American puppetry: a good play, as a rule, based on a familiar tale, with production details carefully worked out and integrated. Puppetry, scenery, lights, properties, and even the printed program, exhibited artistry. His bent for gaiety and humor, his love of odd effects, animals, and the marvelous, found just the right combination.”
During his heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, Sarg gained celebrity and recognition as a showman, innovator, and practical joker with an indefatigable work ethic and ability to turn a profit through his art. Popularizing puppetry on a grand scale and elevating it as a theatrical art in America, Sarg also wrote and illustrated children’s books and “how to” publications such as his 1921 Tony Sarg Marionette Book, which promoted interest in the art form as a home and school activity. His sophisticated, nuanced performances have inspired generations of puppeteers, including Bil Baird, Remo Bufano, and Margo and Rufus Rose, who joined the Tony Sarg marionette troupe and later ventured out to have successful careers of their own.
Puppet technology played a significant role in Sarg’s varied undertakings, which included the production of animated cartoons, mechanical figures for window displays, advertising campaigns, commercial illustration for products, and the inaugural Thanksgiving Day parade balloons and floats for Macy’s Department Store, in 1924 and beyond. In 1935, a large helium-filled Mickey Mouse was paraded in New York, and that year Sarg created the first of a series of automated Macy’s displays that were imitated nationwide. Designing all manner of things, from fabrics and wallpapers to maps, murals, games, and toys, Sarg was also a pioneer in film animation, creating such inventive short productions as Adam Raises Cain(1920) and The First Circus (1921).
During his expansive career, Sarg designed murals and products for prominent New York hotels and department stores and opened popular toy shops in New York City, New Hope, Pennsylvania, and in Marblehead and Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he became a beloved and legendary figure. A forward-thinking entrepreneur who took financial risks and continually sought creative challenges, Sarg was undaunted in his pursuits. In 1939, after launching Robin Hood, his final marionette production, the artist declared bankruptcy, and his puppets were sold or distributed as a means of settling his debts. On February 17, 1942, Sarg died due to complications following surgery for a ruptured appendix at the age of 61, but his influence continues to be felt. A life-long genius at play, Sarg is remembered for his resounding impact on American popular culture and, most especially, for the sense of joy, wonder, and delight that he so freely embraced and shared through his art.
Related Programs
For the first time, the Norman Rockwell Museum will be sharing clues about a surprising exhibition component with the public in an interactive and crowd-sourced fashion. Much like the showman, practical joker, and innovator that Tony Sarg was in his time, the Museum will reveal hints and pieces of the mystery in unexpected ways and advises people in the region to be “on the lookout” for clues. Online tips will also be available for those beyond the Berkshires.
Curator Tours: Genius of Tony Sarg
Curiosity, inventiveness, and a life spent in both the Old and New Worlds combined to make puppeteer, animator, and illustrator Tony Sarg a genuine, one-of-a-kind artist. Join the Museum’s Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Stephanie Haboush Plunkett, for a 40-minute Guided Tour of a very special exhibition. Tours are limited to 25 people and will be available on June 15 & 24, July 13 & 22, and August 17 & 26.
Art of Adventure Festival 
Calling all explorers, curiosity-seekers, and pathbreakers! Journey on over to the Museum on July 15, 2023, from 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm for an afternoon full of indoor and outdoor adventures, real and imagined, inspired by the creative pursuits of Tony Sarg: illustrator, puppeteer, author, designer, entrepreneur, and practical joker. Map-making, arts and crafts, games, food, and drink all combine in one unforgettable story-filled day. Tickets go on sale May 1, 2023.
Exhibition Support
Tony Sarg: Genius at Play is supported by generous funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, Lead Sponsor Greylock Federal Credit Union, and Media Sponsor Berkshire Magazine.
About Norman Rockwell Museum
The Norman Rockwell Museum illuminates the power of American illustration art to reflect and shape society, and advances the enduring values of kindness, respect, and social equity portrayed by Norman Rockwell. A comprehensive resource relating to Norman Rockwell and the art of illustration, American visual culture, and the role of published imagery in society, the Museum holds the world’s largest and most significant collection of art and archival materials relating to Rockwell’s life and work, while also preserving, interpreting, and exhibiting a growing collection of art by other American illustrators throughout history. The Museum engages diverse audiences through onsite and traveling exhibitions, as well as publications, arts and humanities programs, including the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, and comprehensive online resources.
NRM is open year-round, six days a week; closed Wednesdays. Admission is charged, Free for Kids & Teens. For details, visit the Museum online at www.NRM.org.
Image credits
Tony Sarg (1880-1942) Roberts House, c.1928. India ink and watercolor on paper,
Collection of the Society of Illustrators.
Photographer Unknown Tony Sarg’s Turkey Gobbler Balloon, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, 1929.
Photograph, Collection of the Nantucket Historical Association.
Photoghapher Unknown Tony Sarg adding detail to a map of the Western Hemisphere, c. 1930s.
Photograph, Nantucket Historical Association Collection; PH8-29-3.
Photographer unknown, Tony Sarg’s Sky Elephant Balloon, Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade, 1928.
Photograph Collection of the Nantucket Historical Association.
Tony Sarg (1880-1942) Riding the Donkey 1915 Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, October 2, 1915.
Tearsheet Collection of George Korn.
Photoprint Gravure Company, Inc. Tony Sarg Conducting a Rehearsal Behind the Scenes of his Marionette Stage, c.1920s Photograph.
Tony Sarg Photographic Collection, Nantucket Historical Association Collection; PH8-34-3.
Tony Sarg (1880-1942) Tony Sarg’s Book of Animals, 1927. Illustrated Book,
Collection of the Nantucket Historical Association.