The Joslyn Art Museum Presents American Illustrations by Wendell Minor

Written by Frederick Tunstall Thursday, 27 October 2011 00:16

Omaha, NE.- The Joslyn Art Museum is pleased to present "Wendell Minor: In the American Tradition", on view at the museum through December 31st. A lifelong fascination with America’s national heroes, traditional folkways, classic literature, and natural wonders great and small inspires the accomplished work of Wendell Minor. While countless adult readers have enjoyed Minor’s jacket designs for bestselling novels such as '1776' and 'Truman' (David McCullough), 'Prince of Tides' (Pat Conroy), and 'Terms of Endearment' (Larry McMurtry), young readers have had the more rewarding experience of joining the artist on picture book-length visual explorations to far-flung places such as the Arctic and the Moon. His paintings for Jack London’s 'Call of the Wild' and Diane Siebert’s 'Mojave', and his own picture book adaptation of Katharine Lee Bates’ 'America the Beautiful', express his sense of amazement at the sweep and grandeur of our nation’s natural inheritance. Through much of his work, Minor brings to mind the urgent need to protect America’s wildlife and unspoiled places. Nowhere has he done so more eloquently than with Jean Craighead George’s 'Everglades', a celebration of nature’s bounty and a dramatically clear reminder of why the world’s wonders are worth saving.

The exhibition comprises approximately 60 watercolors. In addition to those listed above, illustrations from several other books are included: 'Cat, What is That?' by Tony Johnson, 'Shaker Hearts' and 'Abe Lincoln Remembers' by Ann Turner, and 'Rachel' by Amy Ehrlich. Wendell Minor was born and raised in Illinois, where both his parents grew up on farms. Minor’s world was always been visual, and reading appreciation came later in life. Drawing and painting were always an integral part of his life, and his mother was the first to nurture this interest. After completing his studies at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, Minor moved to New York City and began creating original designs for book publishers. Although his focus had been on illustrating and designing book jackets for authors including David McCullough, Pat Conroy, Fannie Flagg and James Michener, to name but a few, in 1986 art director Al Cetta at HarperCollins handed Minor a manuscript for a picture book entitled 'Mojave' by Diane Siebert. Minor loved the poem, and felt that Siebert’s words were the written equivilant to his pictures. That was the first of 35 children’s books to follow. One of his most satisfying assignments was painting full-color pictures for a new edition of 'The Call of the Wild', published as a Scribner’s Modern Classic in the fall of 1999. It was with great pleasure that he dedicated those illustrations to the memory of Mr. Gilkey, the sixth grade teacher who so influenced his future. Minor’s children’s books reflect his love for the land and environment. Illustrating books for naturalist authors Jean Craighead George and Diane Siebert, among others, he approaches his art by researching and experiencing each environment he illustrates. His travels have taken him from the tropical Everglades of Florida to Barrow, Alaska in the Arctic Circle, from the Midwest to the Grand Canyon in the Southwest, and throughout the United States. In addition to picture books, Minor has created cover art and interior illustrations for novels for young people, including Jean Craighead George’s 'Julie' and 'Julie’s Wolf Pack', and redesigned the cover for the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the Newbery award-winning 'Julie of the Wolves'. He has also authored several of his own books, and in 2005, Christmas Tree!, his first collaboration with his wife and business partner, Florence, was published. Minor is a member of The Children’s Book Council (CBC), a non-profit trade organization dedicated to encouraging literacy and the use and enjoyment of children’s books. He refers to himself as a “recovering dyslexic” and when he speaks in classrooms across the country, he shares with students of all ages the difficulties he experienced with reading as a child, and for those who have similar difficulties, how they too can overcome them. Wendell and his wife Florence spend many hours each day in their studio in Washington, Connecticut, which they share with their cats Sofie and Cindercat. They love every minute of it!


Joslyn Art Museum was a generous gift to the people of Omaha from Sarah H. Joslyn (1851–1940) in memory of her husband, George A. Joslyn (1848–1916), in his day, the richest man in Nevada, thanks to his interests in paper mills and publishing. When associates suggested he move his business headquarters East, George answered that his money had been “made in Omaha and it would be spent in Omaha.” After her husband’s death, Mrs. Joslyn devoted herself to creating a memorial that would perpetuate their shared interests in music and art, as well as benefit the greatest number of people possible. She decided to build a concert hall surrounded with art galleries. When it opened on November 29, 1931, the new museum received several private collections as gifts, as well as collections from the Art Institute of Omaha and the Friends of Art. The extraordinary Art Deco building was hailed not only as an important addition to the city of Omaha, but to modern American architecture as well. In 1938 it was listed among the 100 finest buildings in the United States. Construction took three years and cost almost $3 million. The three-level interior comprises some 38 marbles from around the world and includes stone from Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, and Morocco. The exterior and retaining wall alone filled 250 boxcars with George Pink (Etowah Fleuri) marble. The building’s architects utilized Native American themes throughout the museum interior and on the east entrance columns. Moravian floor tiles used in the colorful Storz Fountain Court include symbols for literature, music, architecture, and painting. The Walter and Suzanne Scott Pavilion, a 58,000 square-foot addition designed by renowned British architect Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, and built in 1994 at a cost of $15.95 million, connects to the original Memorial building with the glorious glass ConAgra Foods Atrium.

The permanent collections include an exceptional collection of Greek pottery, European art from the 16th and 17th century works including paintings by Veronese, Titian, Claude Lorrain and El Greco. However the strongest collections are from the 19th century, including romantic works by Delacroix and Gustave Doré, realist works by Corot and Gustave Courbet, and an impressionist works by Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre Auguste Renoir. The American collection includes early American portraiture by James Peale and Mather Brown, many works by painters of the Hudson River School, realist works by Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins, and works by the American impressionists Childe Hassam and William Merritt Chase. The colelction of Western American art including important collections of work by the Swiss artist Karl Bodmer based on his 1832-34 journey to the Missouri River frontier, and by Alfred Jacob Miller, also illustrating the West of the 1830s. A wide range of 20th century painting and sculpture is represented, including paintings by Henri Matisse, Stuart Davis, Theodore Roszak, John Sloan and Robert Henri, and sculpture by Deborah Butterfield, Robert Haozous, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt and Martin Puryear. The collection stresses significant American artistic movements, including regionalism (with paintings by Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton) and Abstract Expressionism (with work by Jackson Pollock, Hans Hofmann, and Helen Frankenthaler) and Pop Art (with work by George Segal and Tom Wesselmann). Although the best known names appear in the European and American collections, it is probably the Western American and Native American collections that have the greatest importance as collections, allowing a rare opportunity to study these genres and periods of art as well as giving an important insight into the history of the western United States. In addition to its permanent collections, the museum mounts regular special exhibitions. It also serves as an important regional educational and artistic resource, and its building includes an auditorium where regular concerts are held.In 2007, Joslyn celebrated 75 years of achievement and inspiration with an exciting year of events and programs recognizing the Museum's permanent collection, special exhibitions, building, campus, and community partnerships. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.joslyn.org

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