Graham Gallery Artwork

In my quest to see and present as many images as possible from Edward Gorey's two Graham Gallery Exhibitions, two more pieces surfaced during the past year. One image is from the 1974 show, while the second was shown at the gallery in 1975 as part of a group exhibition. I am continually impressed by every piece created for these exhibitions, and must admit to getting weak at the knees when I have the good fortune to view them in person.

The 1974 exhibition had 46 pieces of original artwork created by Mr. Gorey specifically for the show (see my posting from June 30, 2009 for the complete list). So far, I have now seen ten of the pieces in person or in print. After a Staffordshire sugarbowl was #14 on the list and is drawn in what appears to be dried blood, but is really just deep red ink. This masterful genre drawing presents a delightful scene with an abundance of birds and animals.

Les Roses bleuatres l'oubliette dans la cuisine was included in the 1975 Graham Gallery show. I have yet to find a checklist of the pieces that were displayed. This stunning piece is reproduced in Looking for Edward Gorey (see my post from December 20, 2011), but was not on display in the exhibition at the University of Hawaii. The cutaway scene includes just about everything anyone could ever hope to see in a piece by Edward Gorey.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Goreyana!

Pepper has asked Santa to bring more Gorey Kitty Dolls for her to play with!

Looking for Edward Gorey

Looking for Edward Gorey, published by the University of Hawaii Art Gallery, 2011, is a companion volume to the September 26 - December 10 exhibition at the gallery. This privately printed book is only available from the University, so to obtain a copy you must contact the gallery, then send off your payment (credit cards are not accepted). This will no doubt become one of the rarer volumes dedicated to Mr. Gorey as time goes by.

The University of Hawaii is the repository of one of the larger collections of Edward Gorey material. The items were donated to the university by John A. Carollo, who continues to enrich his namesake collection. The 2010 exhibition was the second showing of this stellar grouping, and this exhibition was augmented with many items from the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust. The resulting exhibition had a depth of material rarely seen on display.

Looking for Edward Gorey is profusely illustrated with photographs from the exhibition. There are many images showing the gallery installation as well as highlights from the show. At 163 pages, this over sized paperback book consists of an essay about Mr. Gorey and his works by Dr. Joseph Stanton. General topics, major themes and individual books are discussed at length. My main disappointment with the volume is that there is no checklist of the items displayed in the show or in the collection of the University. To better appreciate which items were on display, one must minutely examine the installation photographs and try to make out the displays.

Tuning Fork Auction

The suite of original artwork for the The Tuning Fork by Edward Gorey was withdrawn from the December 13th auction at Sotheby's.

More Tuning Fork

The plot, or soup, thickens around Edward Gorey's original artwork for The Tuning Fork, which is being offered at Sotheby's Auction House next week.

According to Edward Bradford, the official Edward Gorey bibliographer and author of F is for Fantods; Edward Gorey's Fantod Press: A Bibliographical Checklist, the art being offered was most likely the version of The Tuning Fork published in Status Magazine in November 1968 (two other complete books by Edward Gorey also appeared in the magazine in March 1969 & July 1969) under the title - Theoda; A Gothic Tale of the Generation Gap, Alienation and Despair Driving Parents and Children into Monstrous Behavior which Solves Nothing. This is, quite possibly, the most convoluted title to any tale penned by Mr. Gorey.

So the question remains - Why redraw the book? The most reasonable explanation offered by Mr. Bradford is that the original artwork simply was not returned to Mr. Gorey by the magazine, and when EG thought of including this story in Amphigorey Also, the art could not be found. The only option would be to redraw the entire book. This also explains why there were no changes to the story and the illustrations match the originals so well - Mr. Gorey had no choice but to copy his own work from the printed magazine pictures.

It is not as unusual as it sounds for an artist not to get art back from a publisher, especially in the 1960's. It usually fell to the artist or their agent to keep track of such things, and if a significant amount of time had elapsed before anyone thought to get the work back, it could easily be lost.

The Tuning Fork at Auction

On December 13, Sotheby's will be auctioning a suite of original pen and ink drawings by Edward Gorey from The Tuning Fork. Curiously, this suite of drawings is not the final published artwork that appears in Amphigorey Also (published in 1983), or in the first edition of this title (published by the Fantod Press in 1990). The drawings being auctioned are not sketches, but rather are completely finished drawings. After checking with Sotheby's, it was confirmed that this suite of 14 drawings plus title page and page of lettering is unpublished. The photo below was provided by Sotheby's Auction House, New York.
The illustrations being auctioned are dated on the reverse, and were made between 10 August 1966 and 19 October 1966, long before the first publication of this work in 1983. On his "A" collection books, Mr. Gorey always dated each individual drawing on the reverse when he started and completed them. He must have intended this to be a final set of artwork, but changed his mind. It would be interesting to know what the dates on the reverse of the final artwork in the Gorey archives are.
Obviously, Mr. Gorey redrew the entire book before publication. It is interesting to compare the earlier drawings with the later illustrations. The composition of the art has not changed at all, but the detailing of the published art is more refined. In the photos above and below, the Sotheby's art is on the left and the published art is on the right. The differences, while clear when viewed side by side, are subtle.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!
from Goreyana