Sunday night email
Each Sunday I receive an email called Art of the Week which has one artist who is highlighted. I am not sure how I got on the email list for this but they provide fabulous blips of information on an artist. You can sign up to receive them by sending your email address to artoftheweek@gmail.com. You can check out the archives by visiting artofweek.com. The highlighted artist of this week is none other than Maurice Sendak who passed away last week at the age of 84. The information sent is included below so you can get an idea of what the Art of the Week is like.
Maurice Sendak (1928-2012) is an American artist who gained prominence as an author and illustrator of his own picture books. Sendak was born in Brooklyn of Jewish parents, whose extended family perished in the Holocaust. As such, Sendak was exposed at an early age of the dark episodes of life and death.
Sendak is most famous for Where Wild Things Are, published in 1963. The illustrations in the book portray grotesque but fascinating characters. The book won the Caldecott Medal in 1964.
The book tells the story of Max, who one evening plays around his home making “mischief” in a wolf costume. As punishment, his mother sends him to bed without supper. In his room, a mysterious, wild forest and sea grows out of his imagination, and Max sails to the land of the Wild Things. The Wild Things are fearsome-looking monsters, but Max proves to be the fiercest, conquering them by “staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once”.
The plots of Sendak’s picture books depict dark episodes where children are kidnapped and parents disappear. His posthumous book, titled “My Brother’s Book” is scheduled to be published in February 2013.
