Upcoming Exhibitions

Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey

February 9 - June 3, 2011

Carnivorous plants, falling masonry, and uninvited guests fill the imaginary world of artist and author Edward Gorey. His stories and accompanying illustrations maintain a delicate balance between the hilarious and the horrific. 

Gorey’s voracious consumption of literature, his love of the ballet, and his off beat and wry view of the world resulted in a sardonic and witty oeuvre. This exhibition explores the diversity of Gorey’s art through original pen and ink illustrations, preparatory sketches, unpublished drawings, and ephemera. Drawn from the holdings of the Gorey Charitable Trust, the exhibition includes approximately 180 objects, including selections from The Gashlycrumb Tinies, The Unstrung Harp, The Gilded Bat, and other well-known Gorey publications. 

Edward St. John Gorey (1925-2000) was born in Chicago, educated at Harvard, and lived in New York. He wrote over 100 books, including The Gashlycrumb Tinies, The Doubtful Guest, and The Wuggly Ump; created prize-winning set and costume designs for productions for theaters from Cape Cod to Broadway; and published illustrations in publications such as the New Yorker and the New York Times and for books by authors such as Charles Dickens, Edward Lear, Samuel Beckett, John Updike, Virginia Woolf, and H.G. Wells. His animated credits for the PBS series Mystery introduced him to millions of television viewers. His masterful pen and ink illustrations and his ironic, offbeat humor have brought him critical acclaim and an avid following throughout the world. 

This exhibition is organized by the Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue by curator and critic Karen Wilkin. The exhibition is organized at the Boston Athenæum by David B. Dearinger, Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings & Sculpture.

FIVE BY FIVE: PAINTINGS FROM THE COLLECTION

October through December 2010

This fall, the Boston Athenæum’s Norma Jean Calderwood Gallery will feature the work of five American artists from the Athenæum’s collection. Portrait artists Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) and Cephas Thompson (1775-1856), genre painter Enrico Meneghelli (b. 1853), and Boston figure painters Allan Rohan Crite (1910-2007) and Polly Thayer (1904-2006) will be represented by five paintings each, ranging in date from the early nineteenth century to the late twentieth century.

February 9 - June 3, 2010