By C.J. Hirschfield
So many classic, best-selling children’s books are illustrated with collage
that you may assume the technique – sticking various materials such as photographs
and pieces of paper or fabric onto a backing – has always been associated with
children’s literature. What would The Hungry Caterpillar (Eric
Carle), Tar Beach (Faith Ringgold), Swimmy (Leo Lionni) and The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats) be without their playful and vibrant collage
illustrations?
In fact, though, the first
American children’s book illustrated with collage, Caps for Sale, wasn’t
published until 1940. The story of its author/illustrator, Esphyr Slobodkina,
itself reads like a novel – and a version of the book is now being adapted into
a magical, musical production exclusively for Children’s Fairyland. “Circus Caps for Sale,” our co-production
with the talented folks at San Francisco’s Circus Center, opens in our Aesop’s
Playhouse on July 7 and continues on weekends through July 29.
Esphyr Slobodkina (ess-FEER
sloh-BOD-keen-ah) was born in 1908 in Chelyabinsk, Russia, and died in 2002 in
Glen Head, New York. Her legacy is kept very much alive by Ann Marie Mulhearn
Sayer, president of the Slobodkina Foundation in Northpoint, New York. Herself
an accomplished musician and performer, Ann Marie lived and worked with Esphyr
for seven years, serving as her all-around assistant. When I spoke with Ann
Marie, she shared some details of the artist’s remarkable “riches to rags”
life, which intersects with the tumult of
the Russian Revolution and the development of American modernism.
Esphyr (left) and her sister Tamara at the train station in Harbin, China, in 1919. |
Esphyr’s family escaped from Russia
prior to the 1917 revolution, landing in Harbin, Manchuria, a Russian enclave
at the time. When she was 19, Esphyr immigrated on a student visa to New York,
where she studied at the National Academy of Design while holding down multiple
jobs. One by one, she brought all of her family members to the United States.
In 1936, she became one of the founding members of American Abstract Artists.
Esphyr Slobodkina working on Caps for Sale in 1938. |
It’s worth backtracking at this
point to note that when Esphyr was 5, she had contracted scarlet fever, which
forced her to spend long periods alone. To pass the time, she cut shapes out of
newspapers, magazines and scrap paper, sometimes layering, sometimes adding
leaves and dried flowers. Without knowing it, she was making collage.
Fast forward to 1938, when
renowned children’s book author Margaret Wise Brown (“Goodnight Moon”) hired
Esphyr to illustrate a book called “The Little Fireman,” considered the first American children’s book to be illustrated
completely with cut-paper collage. Esphyr had singlehandedly combined modernism
with children’s literature, a fusion that continues to this day.
Branching
out on her own, Esphyr based Caps for Sale on a story she had heard when she
was a child. The book was published in 1940 and became an instant hit; it has
since sold millions of copies and been translated into 17 languages, most
recently Mandarin.
After “Caps,”
Esphyr’s painting career took off. Her art has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
and our own San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Esphyr returned to publishing in
the 1960s, ultimately completing 22 children’s books. It was during this period
that she wrote Circus Caps for Sale, the story of a peddler who finds himself
caught in the middle of a circus on parade. Before he knows it, he becomes the
star of the show.
The book has never been presented
with accomplished circus performers, and Ann Marie says she’s “thrilled” about
the new Fairyland/Circus Center production, which will feature Circus Center's tumblers and
aerialists. She’s especially pleased that
Esphyr’s art will be on display as the production’s backdrop.
Ann Marie Sayer, left, with Esphyr Slobodkina in 1997. |
Today, the charitable Slobodkina Foundation “actively preserves
the legacy of the artist’s prolific, unusually multifaceted career through
traveling exhibitions, programs for children of all ages and an online
presence.”
When I read a quote from Esphyr Slobodkina, I became convinced that she was a
kindred spirit and that Fairyland is the perfect place to feature her work. See
what you think:
“I believe that the formative years of childhood are relatively brief but very important segments of a person's life. The parents, the teachers, the librarians, and, yes, the writers and illustrators of children's books must take their responsibility most seriously, for the images, the verbal patterns, and the patterns of behavior they present to children in these lighthearted confections are likely to influence them for the rest of their lives. These esthetic impressions, just like the moral teachings of early childhood, remain indelible.”
To buy tickets to Fairyland’s production of “Circus Caps for
Sale,” visit the Circus Center website.
__
C.J. Hirschfield has served for 16 years as executive director of Children's Fairyland, where she is charged with the overall operation of the nation's oldest storybook theme park.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.