You’re a sneaky one, Dr. Seuss. With entertaining drawings, simple words and rhythmic rhymes, you taught us how to read.
Although we’re not 5 anymore, we’re under the spell of his imagination again at Secrets of the Deep, a traveling exhibit subtitled “The lost, forgotten and hidden works of Theodor Seuss Geisel,” at Malton Gallery in Oakley.
It’s tempting to dismiss this show unless equipped with an open mind and information about Seuss’ years as an ad man, editorial cartoonist, illustrator and especially as creator of previously unseen “Midnight Paintings.”
This is a commercial exhibit, make no mistake. Though they carry Dr. Seuss’ signature, the artworks aren’t originals. The author died in 1991. For the past 18 years, his widow Audrey Geisel has authorized limited-edition “adaptions” — serigraphs and the like, plus reproductions of sculptures. The originals remain in her La Jolla, Calif., home and at the University of California-San Diego and, in the case of The Lorax, at the LBJ Presidential Library in Texas. (Five political cartoons are in the Cincinnati Art Museum’s collection but have not been displayed, CityBeat reported last year.)
Because the 45 or so pieces shown are reproductions, some fall flat, leaving the observer longing for texture and brushstrokes. Some drawings — of the Lorax and Sneetches, for instance — look no different from pages of his books. But here’s the sneaky thing: You start remembering the books and smile at Seuss’ inventiveness. Once that happens, oh, the places you’ll go, as the title of his 1990 book says.
Seuss painted and drew for his own pleasure late at night and kept the works out of the public eye. In fact, they were stored in a closet behind a bookcase with a false door. He gave his wife permission to share them posthumously. Seuss representative Jeff Schuffman says the self-taught artist wasn’t embarrassed by his experiments with surrealism and cubism — he just needed a domain away from The Cat in the Hat.
Seuss secretly tested reaction to his private paintings with “Green Cat with Lights,” signed Stroogo Von M. An alien-looking creature, kind of a cross between the Grinch and the Cat in the Hat, peers behind twinkly strands. Seuss asked houseguests how they liked his “acquisition.” At least one visitor, Seuss’ widow reports, claimed to have his own Stroogo.
We see in the secret and archive works the same pouty faces and expressive eyes that we know from Dr. Seuss books. But there’s more color and an adult vibe. The energy in “Incidental Music for a New Year’s Eve Party,” a Jazz scene originally published in Judge magazine in 1932, is generated by wacky instruments that predate the contraptions in his children’s books. Is that a saxophone or a hookah that man is holding?
The pastels of Matisse color a crazy maze of buildings in “Cat Detective in the Wrong Part of Town.” The work likely was influenced by Seuss’ own time in France. Our feline hero is wearing a Clouseau-like chapeau and peering through a telescope at what we suspect is a nude woman.
We can tell that’s definitely a nude with a, um, pussycat between her legs in the Picasso-influenced “The Rather Odd Myopic Woman Riding Piggyback on One of Helen’s Many Cats.” And because of the cat, we can tell that’s definitely a Seuss.
The pieces hold their own among Malton’s contemporary fine art. Seuss’ saturated “Deco Period” works, where multiple arches define his elaborate architecture and exotic landscapes, look at home on a black wall next to glass bowls and vases. Yet gallery owner Sylvia Rombis says the Seuss exhibit brings a different energy to her space. She remains surprised at how the art transports her to an earlier time and memories of reading to a child.
From grade-schoolers to grandparents, visitors discussed favorite books at last weekend’s opening as they viewed a turtleneck-bedecked sea turtle and more “Unorthodox Taxidermy” — a menagerie originally crafted from animal parts sent to Seuss by his father, a zoo administrator.
“When I gave away my kids’ stuff, I still kept every Dr. Seuss book,” said Robin Hartmann, an art teacher at New School Montessori.
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, the last book Seuss released before his death, is a popular present this time of year for grads. It’s not an original gift idea, but the pieces in the Seuss show aren’t original, either. Give the book, then make the exhibit one of the places you’ll go with your grad. It can be your little secret.
Dr. Seuss’ SECRETS OF THE DEEP runs through May 30 at Malton Gallery. More info: maltonartgallery.com.
This article appears in May 13-19, 2015.