WALTER WICK: GAMES, GIZMOS AND TOYS IN THE ATTIC
September 19, 2010–January 2, 2011
Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Attic is the first museum retrospective of award-winning author and photographic illustrator Walter Wick. Author of Can You See What I See? and co-creator of the I Spy book series loved by millions of children and adults around the world, Wick has a keen interest in puzzles, games, science and illusions. The exhibition will feature a selection of Wick’s early photographs, which provided a foundation for the artist’s interest in illusions. It will include several of the handcrafted, meticulously detailed, installation models accompanied by his large-format color photographs that are the illustrations in his children’s books. Together they will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the artist’s creative process and a window into the puzzles and illusions for which he is so well known. The exhibition will include a model and photographs from Wick’s recent book, Can You See What I See On a Scary Scary Night?, inspired directly by the Walters’ Chamber of Wonders, as well as the debut of models and photographs from his newest book released in April 2010.
CHECKMATE! MEDIEVAL PEOPLE AT PLAY
July 17–October 10, 2010
We are all familiar with praying monks, but playing monks? A Book of Hours from Flanders finds them deep in a game of “Blind Man’s Bluff,” while on the opposite page peasant boys enjoy a rigorous game of hockey. Such delightful images of play are unexpectedly ubiquitous in medieval manuscripts. Neither stodgy nor perpetually pious, medieval people found time for amusement in the margins of their lives and their manuscripts. This exhibition looks at many different aspects of medieval play, including board games, sports, free play, visual ciphers and even games of love. Drawn entirely from the Walters’ own stellar collection, the exhibition features 26 manuscripts, original medieval game pieces and a 13th century toy soldier. Through these objects, visitors of all ages can explore a sense of whimsy and fun that is uniquely medieval, yet remarkably relevant to us today.
GREAT ILLUSTRATIONS:
BOOKS AND DRAWINGS FROM THE WALTERS’ COLLECTION
July 31–October 24, 2010
This focus show unearths treasures of illustration hidden in the permanent collection of the Walters Art Museum. Featuring preparatory drawings for Gustave Doré’s Bible and Paul Gavarni’s lively sketches of the London underworld, the exhibition explores the variety of ways in which 19th-century artists approached the art of illustration. Drawings and watercolors after works by William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and Jonathan Swift join the luxurious volumes in which they were published.
The Walters Art Museum, located in Baltimore, Maryland’s Mount Vernon neighborhood, is a public art museum founded in 1934. The museum’s collection was amassed substantially by two men, William Thompson Walters (1819-1894), who began serious collecting when he moved to Paris at the outbreak of the American Civil War, and his son Henry Walters (1848–1931), who refined the collection and rehoused it in a palazzo building on Charles Street which opened in 1909. Upon his death, Henry Walters bequeathed the collection of over 22,000 works and the original Charles Street palazzo building to the city of Baltimore, “for the benefit of the public.” The collection touches masterworks of ancient Egypt, Greek sculpture and Roman sarcophagi, medieval ivories, illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance bronzes, Old Master and 19th-century paintings, Chinese ceramics and bronzes, and Art Deco jewelry.
www.thewalters.org
