CULTURAL TRADITIONS: A HOLIDAY CELEBRATION

November 17, 2018 through February 24, 2019
Cultural Traditions: A Holiday Celebration explores the commonality and distinctiveness of peoples and their traditions around the world through the art and stories in children’s picture books. Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and the Chinese New Year are celebrated in over 40 original works created by six award-winning children’s book illustrators, highlighting our shared hopes and dreams for our communities and families.

Karla Gudeon
Grandma fries the latkes brown 2008
Illustration for Hanukkah Haiku by Harriet Ziefert [Maplewood, NJ: Blue Apple Books, 2008.] Watercolor on paper
R. Michelson Galleries
©2008 by Karla Gudeon. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Holiday books featured in the exhibition include: Dusk by Uri Shulevitz; Harriet Ziefert’s Hanukkah Haiku, illustrated by Karla Gudeon; Clement Clarke Moore’s The Night Before Christmas, illustrated by Gennady Spirin; The Night of Las Posadas by Tomi dePaola; Andrea Davis Pinkney’s Seven Candles for Kwanzaa, illustrated by David Pinkney; and Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin.

Encouraged by his family to pursue his love of art, Tomie dePaola studied at Pratt Institute and California College of Arts. During his career, he has created over 260 books resulting in numerous industry awards including the Society of Illustrators Original Art Show Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

Karla Gudeon, a Parson’s School of Design graduate and Judaic artist, creates whimsical watercolors representing Jewish ritual and culture. Her imagery includes the kindling of the menorah, frying of latkes, and spinning of dreidels.

After attending the Rhode Island School of Design, Grace Lin followed her dream of creating children’s books. She has become an advocate for diversity, and truly believes, “Books erase bias, …A book makes all cultures universal.”

Brian Pinkney, son of acclaimed illustrator Jerry Pinkney, grew up in an environment where art was a family activity. Honing his talent at Philadelphia College of Art and School of Visual Arts, Pinkney has gone on to illustrate many children’s picture books and win numerous awards including the 2000 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, Uri Shulevitz has lived in Paris and Israel, and now resides in Manhattan. From the age of three, Shulevitz loved drawing, and expanded his skills by studying painting at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. He found employment as an illustrator for a Hebrew children’s book publisher before venturing out on his own. He has won numerous awards including 1969 Caldecott Medal.

Born on December 25, 1948, in a small industrial town outside of Moscow, Gennady Spirin attended the Surikov School of Fine Art, Moscow and continued his studies at the Moscow Stroganov Institute of Art. Wanting to avoid Soviet political restraints, he pursued a career as a children’s book illustrator which gave him of freedom of expression as an artist. Spirin has rendered over forty children’s picture books and has received numerous awards including five New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books of the Year.

IMAGES

Uri Shulevitz (Polish/American b. 1935)
Lights,…, 2013.
Illustration for Dusk by Uri Shulevitz, [Margaret Ferguson Books, Farrar Straus Giroux 2013] .
Ink and watercolor on paper
Uri Shulevitz
©2013 by Uri Shulevitz. All rights reserved.
Grace Lin (American, b. 1974)
…they brought in the lions., c. 2008.
Illustration for Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin, 2008.
Gouache on paper.
Courtesy of R. Michelson Galleries.
©2008 by Grace Lin. All rights reserved.
Brian Pinkney (American, b. 1961)
Seven candles are proudly placed in our “kinara”, a wooden candle holder., c. 1993.
Cover illustration for Seven Candles for Kwanzaa by Andrea Davis Pinkney, 1993.
Ink and oil pastels on scratchboard.
Collection of the artist.
©1993 by Brian Pinkney. All rights reserved.
Tomie dePaola (American b. 1934)
It was Lupe and Robert, calling out as they rushed into the courtyard. “Did we ruin everything?”, 1999
The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie dePaola [New York: G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1999, 25.] Acrylic on handmade watercolor paper.
Collection of the artist
©1991 by Tomie dePaola. All rights reserved.
Karla Gudeon.
Illustration for Hanukkah Haiku by Harriet Ziefert [Maplewood, NJ: Blue Apple Books, 2008.] Watercolor on paper
Courtesy of R. Michelson Galleries
©2008 by Karla Gudeon. All rights reserved.
Gennady Spirin (Russian/American b. 1948)
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,…, 2006
The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore, [Tarrytown, NY; Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2006, 22.] Watercolor and colored pencil on paper
Collection of the artist
©2006 by Gennady Spirin. All rights reserved.

RELATED EVENTS

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MEDIA

There is no media about this exhibition at this time.

VENUE(S)

Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA     November 17, 2018 through February 24, 2019