San Francisco, CA: The Cartoon Art Museum hosts Edward Gorey al Fresco, an exhibit featuring three original watercolors and a lithograph created by celebrated author and artist Edward Gorey, on display from July 9 through October 15, 2023.  
 

Other than a trip in 1975 to visit Scottish Hebrides and Loch Ness, Edward Gorey rarely went beyond his New York-New England orbit — but his imagination knew no bounds. From a frozen arctic bike ride to an airy dip in a lake, the four original works here show just how far out and about his art can take the viewer.

Featured artwork selected by Cartoon Art Museum founder and Gorey enthusiast Malcolm Whyte includes a look at the fateful Crumpet-Fanlight Expedition, a terse economic battle captioned “Haggling over a small black canvas on the hunch it’s a Chardin,” a festive outing entitled "Summer Joy," and Gorey’s low-key watercolor for the cover of Jane Aiken’s novel Cold Shoulder Road. "That cover perfectly captures the somber atmosphere and quirky character of English villagers of the rugged Dover coast," observes Malcolm Whyte. "The three youngsters shopping the fair booths and the tall figure being pulled on his two-wheeler by a kite are all instrumental to a rousing story woven around lost family, kidnapping, smuggling, hidden treasures and conversing only through thoughts. As an 'artist for hire,' the assignment happily matched Gorey’s own affinity for mystery and the unusual."

About Edward Gorey

A truly prodigious and original artist, Edward St. John Gorey (1925-2000), gave to the world over one hundred works, including The Gashlycrumb Tinies, The Doubtful Guest and The Wuggly Ump; prize-winning set and costume designs for innumerable theater productions from Cape Cod to Broadway; a remarkable number of illustrations in publications such as The New Yorker and The NewYork Times, and in books by a wide array of authors from Charles Dickens to Edward Lear, Samuel Beckett, John Updike, Virginia Woolf, H.G. Wells, Florence Heide and many others.  His well known animated credits for the PBS Mystery! series have introduced him to millions of television viewers.  Gorey's masterful pen and ink illustrations and his ironic, offbeat humor have brought him critical acclaim and an avid following throughout the world.

About the Cartoon Art Museum

The Cartoon Art Museum’s mission is to ignite imaginations and foster the next generation of visual storytellers by celebrating the history of cartoon art, its role in society, and its universal appeal. The museum’s vision is to be the premier destination to experience cartoon art in all its many forms from around the world, and a leader in providing insight into the process of creating it. The Cartoon Art Museum can be visited online at cartoonart.org and at in person at 781 Beach Street, San Francisco.