Although the sinister nature of the American illustration artist Edward Gorey suggests an adult audience, it is likely that you would recognize Gorey's books from your childhood. Gorey, who is being commemorated by the Boston Athenæum in an expansive exhibit called "Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey," was one of the 20th century's most prized illustrators, primarily in children's literature.
Gorey was a master at balancing the macabre and a certain level of discomfort with weird and silly humor in a way that appeals to children and adults alike. Identified under the branch of "literary nonsense" — which also claims authors such as Lewis Carroll and Dr. Seuss — Gorey's work combines the ambiance of the eerily corpselike children in Käthe Kollwitz prints with the simple, playful drawings that Shel Silverstein uses to illustrate his poetry and a heavy Victorian, Gothic influence.
Primarily working in pen, Gorey created wonderfully bizarre and eccentric narratives, showing a fondness for word play and peculiar vocabulary in the text that he illustrates. For example, the exhibit features pages from the book "The Gashlycrumb Tinies: or, After the Outing" (1963), which takes a twisted approach to a children's alphabet book by naming a child who has died for each letter. The letter "A" stands for "Amy who fell down the stairs" and "B is for Basil assaulted by bears."
The Boston Athenæum, a cultural library located a few doors down from the State House by the Boston Common, provides a particularly comfortable atmosphere for the show (although I recommend going on a weekday or in the morning due to the exhibit's popularity). The main gallery's deep purple walls let the relatively small black and white drawings pop from their frames, and each of Gorey's books is neatly condensed into a series of a few select images that successfully evoke the atmosphere and textual feeling of each publication.
Chronologically arranged from the 1950s, '60s and '70s to later work, the exhibit allows viewers to see Gorey's progression into a broader variety of textures and subjects from the '60s onward. Although he may be mainly known for his illustrated books, the later drawings in the show also feature his theatrical talent through the inclusion of costume and set design sketches.
Productions such as "The Mikado," for which Gorey successfully combined traditional Eastern attire with his characteristically Victorian aesthetics, show the ability Gorey developed to apply his mature, distinctive style to subjects and projects beyond his usual domain.
Sketchbooks, storyboards and personal relics, such as a few charmingly illustrated envelopes that Gorey sent to his mother, provide an even deeper scope into the delightfully crazy mind of Edward Gorey. Given the very precise, finished nature of Gorey's illustrations, the ability to view his creative process through sketching and word play is especially valuable.
A fair amount of Gorey's color illustrations are also on display, primarily watercolor over ink or prints, which is a nice surprise given the prevalence of black ink drawings among Gorey's most popular works.
Gorey's trademark hatching style and impeccable draftsmanship define his work. Delicate hatching is richly layered to create dramatic shadows that sometimes swallow his figures, and his ability to subtly maneuver thin lines into convincing textures is exemplified throughout the exhibit.
The beauty of viewing Gorey's book illustrations in person is that we are no longer limited to the familiar, up−close perspective we would have with one of his publications in our hands. We can look at the intricate line work in his illustrations up close as we would in their book form, but by backing up from each piece we can note how his careful hatching melts together in soft, elegant gradients and calm, stable compositions.
This exhibit holds a vast collection of the whimsical yet eerie characters that Gorey conceived, from the mysterious figures that dramatically stalk through many of his illustrations in long, foreboding cloaks to strange monsters like Hooglyboo, a character that resembles Winnie the Pooh with a pan placed on his head and a missing leg.
But even in the face of death or unpleasant company, Gorey's characters maintain a somewhat lighthearted, aloof mentality because of their ridiculous nature. The discord between sinister imagery, silly yet pleasant illustrations and utterly ridiculous poems and stories produces a distinct, irresistible humor that has enchanted a cult following of his work.
