As they slowly make their way into the Dixon Gallery and Garden’s main display gallery, schoolchildren from the small tour group strain to see the whimsical pictures that line the walls around them.
They aren’t really sure what to make of it at first. Some stare in wonder at the odd, half-finished sketches of fictional characters from familiar stories. Others fuss and fidget around the friendly tour guide.
“Today is a special day,” the guide tells them, patiently scolding those who touch or lean too close. “No one has ever seen the pictures you are about to see.”
She was talking about the newly-published artwork of Theodore Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, currently on display at Dixon.
The Dixon exhibit, “The Art of Dr. Seuss,” will be on display until Jan. 20, and was taken from the collection of over 8,000 works housed at The University of California in San Diego, a collection that contains original sketches, drawings and paintings from the entire span of Geisel’s career.
“The response from the kids has been really outstanding,” said Margaret Leadbetter, interim marketing director for the Gallery. “The exhibit has been going since Oct. 28, and it’s been really busy ever since.”
Theodore Seuss Geisel was born in Massachusetts in 1904, and first took an interest in illustrating while he was a student at Dartmouth College. One of the exhibit’s most captivating pieces is one of Geisel’s college notebooks, in which he sketched some of his first characters in the margins around his lecture notes, hinting at the worlds that were soon to be born of his fanciful imagination.
By 1960, two decades after he published his first book, Dr. Seuss had become a household name. By 1984, Geisel had been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his work in children’s fiction.
At the entrance to the exhibit, there is a life-size “Cat in the Hat,” one of Geisel’s characters, propped up on a bench, and next to it is a bright-colored tree made up of large feathers and odd-looking hats, all evidence of Geisel’s inimitable style and ceaseless creativity.
In addition to artwork from his most famous pieces, like Green Eggs and Ham, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, there are also sketches from his books geared more towards adults, like You’re Only Old Once—; A Book for Obsolete Children.”
In an eloquent note to the collection, his widow, Audrey, writes, “I remember telling Ted that there would come a day when many of his paintings would be seen and he would thus share with his fans another facet of himself his private self. That day has come. I am glad.”
The attendant in the gallery’s gift shop said she, too, has been thrilled with audience reaction to the exhibit.
“It’s a nice exhibit,” she said. “I saw adults become kids again.”
Gallery Director Jay Camm is also pleased, more so that the exhibit is drawing a younger crowd to the museum.
“I think it’s an important thing for us to have done,” he said, “because it focuses on family. Kids come to this, and it’s usually their first museum experience, so we’ve tried to make it a fun one.”
So far, of course, it has been “wildly popular” with children, he said.
“My ears are still ringing,” he said with a laugh, as another group of kids scampered down the halls, straining the sketches of their favorite Seuss characters.
