Morris Hirshfield at Stanford

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Before the holidays, I saw the fascinating exhibit Morris Hirshfield Rediscovered at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford. Hirshfield (b.1872, d. 1946) immigrated from Russian Poland to New York and made a living in the garment trade. He took up painting at 65 and was included in the landmark 1942 surrealist exhibit First Papers of Surrealism.

Richard Meyer, the Robert and Ruth Helprin Professor of Art History at Stanford did an amazing job reconstructing the life and career of this long-forgotten artist. The exhibit includes early fashion (shoes and patterns), animals, nudes, religious paintings, and surrealist masters. One gallery is devoted to work originally shown in the First Papers of Surrealism exhibit. Another large display uses photos and string to show elements in Hirshfield’s secular nudes echoing themes and layouts in Jewish religious art.

Colleen Doran Illustrates Neil Gaiman opens 10/4 at the SDCC Museum

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Colleen Doran’s Chivalry “glints like a shimmering summer watercolor.” Washington Post, 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2022.

Event Update: On opening day October 4, there will be an artist’s panel in the museum’s theater at 2:00. Colleen Doran will discuss her art with curator Kim Munson, hosted by SDCC’s Eddie Ibrahim. Following the panel Colleen will be signing. Copies of Snow, Glass, Apples, the Snow, Glass, Apples poster (see end of this post), and Chivalry will be available in the museum store. Kim will also be signing her book Comic Art in Museums. Two other exhibits will also be opening, a display about the evolution of color in comics organized by Steve Oliff, and Popnology, which focuses on the intersection of technology and pop culture.

About the exhibit: In the midst of a long career drawing comics for such titles as Wonder Woman, Amazing Spider-Man, and her own creator-owned title A Distant Soil, Colleen Doran has found her artistic Holy Grail in her series of adaptations of Neil Gaiman’s short stories for Dark Horse, including her latest Eisner & Locus Award-winning masterpiece Chivalry, the Eisner, Bram Stoker, & Ringo Award-winning dark fantasy Snow, Glass, Apples, and Troll Bridge, a spooky coming-of-age story.

Colleen Doran. 2021. Neil Gaiman’s Chivalry. Pages 40-41. Gold and iridescent inks, watercolor on paper. Collection of Erik von Oosten

A lifelong enthusiast of Arthurian mythology, Doran longed to adapt Gaiman’s 1992 short story Chivalry. It’s the story of the British widow Mrs. Whitaker, who finds the Holy Grail in a thrift shop. Soon after she brings it home, she is visited by Sir Galahad, who offers her magical relics in exchange so he can win the Grail and end his quest. Like the illuminated manuscripts and Pre-Raphaelite paintings that inspired her colors and layout, Doran’s lush hand-painted pages for Chivalry are full of symbolism taken from her personal life, world history, and Arthurian legend. Her detailed drawing and jewel-toned color palette make viewing the original artwork a visual treat.

Colleen Doran. 1990. Sandman #20 (Dream Country), page 22. Ink on Illustration Board. Collection of Mikail Lotia

Doran met Gaiman in 1989 and she drew a couple of key issues of his groundbreaking title Sandman, which are included in the exhibit. Doran will also be premiering new pages from her official adaptation of the beloved novel Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman for the first time anywhere. The Good Omens Kickstarter set a record for comics projects, raising over $3 Million during the month-long funding period. Also on view will be a large selection of art from Snow, Glass, Apples, Doran’s version of Gaiman’s chilling retelling of the Snow White story, drawn in an intricate art nouveau style influenced by the Irish artist Harry Clarke. The exhibit, curated by Kim A. Munson, editor of the Eisner nominated anthology Comic Art in Museums and 2022 Eisner Awards Judge, will also include work from Gaiman’s Norse Mythology.

Press & Awards: Forbes interview | The Beat on MoCCA Fest | Fanbase Press interview | Chivalry wins Locus Award for Best Illustrated Art Book | Chivalry wins Eisner Award for Best Adaptation | Doran on Good Omens on CBR | Rob Salkowitz on ICV2

The Museum will be selling this beautiful print based on the cover art for Snow Glass Apples. Colleen will be signing these and her books on 10/4 (Chivalry and Snow Glass Apples will be available in the museum store). The store is also stocking my book, Comic Art in Museums which I will be signing.

Colleen and I were absolutely amazed when this meticulously detailed cosplay of the Queen of Snow, Glass, Apples by Sarcasm-hime won the Cosplay Central Crown Championship at New York Comic Con later in October.

Colleen Doran Illustrates Neil Gaiman will be on view from 10/4, 2023 through April 30, 2024 at the San Diego Comic-Con Museum, located in beautiful Balboa Park at 2131 Pan American Plaza, San Diego, CA 92101. Doran and Munson will be attending on October 3 and 4.

Doran's Good Omens Art at SDCC Museum

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Collen Doran Illustrates Neil Gaiman will be opening at the San Diego Comic Con Museum on Oct 4 (through March 2024). In addition to a large selection of work from Chivalry, Snow, Glass, Apples, Sandman, Troll Bridge, and Norse Mythology, Doran will be showing new work from her adaption of Good Omens: the Official (and Ineffable) Graphic Novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. In a phenomenal display of fan support, the Good Omens project is now the #1 comics campaign in Kickstarter history, raising over $3 million in less than a month.

Doran is faithfully adapting the original novel. Each page is hand-drawn and digitally colored. The original inked cover drawing was in the exhibit at the Society of Illustrators (NY) from the start, although it was described as a “private commission” because the Kickstarter project had not been announced. In addition to the cover drawing, we will be showing the color version of the cover, and pages 1 and 3, both set in the Garden of Eden.

Here’s the Kickstarter | interview with Doran about the project on CBR | Rob Salkowitz on ICV2

Memory: Tyrus Wong at the Disney Museum, 2014

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Here’s another entry in my ongoing project to rescue exhibit information from my old blog. Today I’m looking at images from Water to Paper, Paint to Sky: The Art of Tyrus Wong at the Disney Family Museum (August 15, 2013 - February 3, 2014).

Wong had a fascinating career. At the time of this exhibit he was still with us. He was 103 and still actively creating beautiful work. This wide-ranging exhibit showed over 150 works by Wong, including a display of handmade kites, which were his passion in his later years.

The exhibit begins with the story of his immigration from China through Angel Island as a child, and what a trial it was, and establishes how he found a balance between Chinese ideas of form and perspective and Western methods of portraying a scene. These ideas are evident in his best-known work, the concept art for Disney's 1940's masterpiece Bambi. In a video, Wong talks about the contrast between the mists and the need for distance in Chinese painting, where Western painting tends to feature the main subject front and center. His atmospheric paintings really set the tone for Bambi, and made it the work of art it is.

Wong was laid off at Disney following an acrimonious labor dispute and strike, eventually working again as a storyboard artist for Warner Brothers TV. He also designed scarves, dishware, greeting cards, and ceramic tiles. His post-retirement watercolors are lovely and moody, showing his isolation as he dealt with that transition in his life. Then he discovered kite making, which he does in a precise traditional manner. He was still making kites and participating in kite events, particularly at Venice Beach in Southern California at the time of this exhibit. Wong's kites looked beautiful hanging from the beams of the open ceiling of the gallery. The mezzanine was ringed with photos of the kites in the air and celebratory quotes from other animators that have found inspiration in Wong's work.

There’s an article about this show on Cartoon Brew with a good slideshow. Here’s another from the Chinese Historical Society of America. Wong passed away at 106 in 2016. Here are tributes from the Disney and Hammer museums.