Seuss at Sarah Bain

02/10/2016

Dr. Seuss

Cat Detective In The Wrong Part Of Town
2005
Serigraph on Canvas
32 x 24

02/06/2016

01/20/2016

Dr. Seuss

Singing Cats
2002
Serigraph on Archival Paper
20 x 30 inches

01/18/2016

Dr. Seuss in 1937 sculpting Turtle-Necked Sea-Turtle. The Hawksbill Sea Turtle shell came from his dad who, as superintendent of Springfield’s parks, also oversaw the city’s Forest Park Zoo. Animals which met their demise lived on as their bills, horns, antlers, and shells were shipped to Ted in New York to become part of his bizarre taxidermy sculptures. There are 17 known sculptures in “The Seuss System of Unorthodox Taxidermy.” This excerpt from the October 23, 1965 “Saturday Evening Post” fits well here: “‘Dear Dr. Seuss,’ an 8-year-old wrote one day, ‘You sure thunk up a lot of funny books. You sure thunk up a millian funny animals. Who thunk you up Dr. Seuss?’ The truth is that the extraordinary Dr. Seuss was thunk up by a shy man who constantly worries about living up to his own creation. ‘I always have the feeling that people will take one look and recognize me as a fraud.’”

12/07/2015

For our fun fact Monday, we are paying remembrance to Pearl Harbor's infamous day. Shown is the cartoon which appeared the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

“Dr. Seuss Goes to War” is a collection of Ted’s World War II cartoons, originally published in “PM” magazine, which railed against Isolationism, Racism, and Anti-Semitism. Cartoonist, Art Spiegelman wrote the introduction to the book, as well as an article about it which appeared in the “The New Yorker” on July 12, 1999. Here is an excerpt from the article: “One of the great pleasures of this anthology (beyond the not inconsiderable one of offering a painless history lesson on the side) is the affirmation of just how good the good Doctor really was: he called ’em as he saw ’em, and most of the time he was on the side of the angels. The greatest pleasure, though, lies in watching the artist develop his goofily surreal vision while he delivers the ethical goods. The unique galumphing menageries of Seussian fauna, the screwball humor, and the themes that later enraptured millions come into focus in these early drawings, which were done with urgency on very short deadlines.”

Boy, do we at Sarah Bain Gallery agree.

11/22/2015

This Dr. Seuss cartoon ran in College Humor’s August 1931 issue as a 4-page spread. The caption on the final quarter of the drawing was — “Voice from page 31: ‘By gad, old man, you got him!’” College Humor from 1920 to 1939 was a mix of cartoons, fiction, and articles; contributors included Robert Benchley, Groucho Marx, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Although there is no way Ted could have known, with this artwork he comically introduced the idea of the “magic bullet” thirty-two years before it would become a tragic part of our vernacular.

11/18/2015

“In the Far Western part
Of south-east North Dakota
Lives a very fine animal
Called the Iota.”

-“If I Ran the Zoo” 1950.

11/12/2015

“The Saturday Evening Post,” October 23, 1965, quoted Dr. Seuss:

“Childhood is the one time in an average person’s life when he can laugh just for the straight fun of laughing—that’s the main reason I write for kids. As one grows older his humor gets all tied up and stifled by social, economic, and political rules that we learn from our elders, and before long our laughter gets all mixed up with sneers and leers.”

11/11/2015

HAPPY VETERANS DAY FROM SARAH BAIN GALLERY! Thank you for all who have devoted their lives to the protect of us and ours. How about a Veterans Day fun fact about Dr. Seuss' appreciation? Well, here is Dr. Seuss and his WWII connection to the legendary “Band of Brothers.”

Ted dedicated this sketch “for the men of the 101st Air Command, Fort Benning, Geo.” Known as the “Screaming Eagles,” the 101st became famous during WWII. But it was the 2001 HBO miniseries, “Band of Brothers,” that immortalized them by telling the story of Easy Company, the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. They parachuted into Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. After nearly continuous combat in France and the Holland, on December 17 the 101st got orders to defend the town of Bastogne, Belgium, the epicenter for the Battle of the Bulge. Although facing five German divisions, these men held the town until help broke through on December 26. The connection between Dr. Seuss and the 101st was that Ted became trapped for three days behind enemy lines in the countryside near Bastogne the night the invasion began. He was in Europe charged with personally getting the approval of every American General in the field for his post-war occupation film, “Your Job in Germany.” A snafu sent him to Bastogne with only a .45 revolver that he would later admit he never qualified to use. Ted was rescued by the British, but it was the 101st who had held Bastogne allowing the Brits to break through.

(Pictured is the March 1944 briefing for Prime Minister Winston Churchill and General Eisenhower by Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, who would command the 101st during the Siege of Bastogne.)

11/10/2015

In honor of veterans day, we honor a veteran of our own!

Ted Seuss Geisel had enlisted in the Army in January 1942 as a captain attached to Frank Capra’s documentary filmmaking unit, he was almost 38 years old. In time he became Commander of the Animation Department of the First Motion Picture Unit—nicknamed “fumpoo”—of the US Army Air Forces. His training/morale “Private Snafu” cartoon shorts were seen by almost every enlisted man. However, the cartoons took particular aim at the incoming torrent of teenage recruits, teaching them the importance of security awareness, concentration, health, and discipline. Conventional training films left young trainees cold, but they responded to animation and they wanted to laugh. Fumpoo produced 400 films during the war, as well as millions of feet of battlefield footage.

11/04/2015

It a rare sight when we are able to see one of Theodor Geisel's advertising concept drawings alongside with the final ad. Note that Ted’s original thought for this 1949 Flit advertisement was, “For insects, plain, or Jet-Propelled . . . Quick Henry! The Flit.” What ended up beside the “Quick, Henry, the Flit” tagline was “Say It! Spray It! Slay It!” However, the dive-bombing “jet lookalike mosquito” didn’t change at all.

Come into Sarah Bain Gallery today to get a look at some of our diptychs similarly placed side to side like this advertisement!

10/30/2015

Lion Stroll
Serigraph on Archival Canvas
24” x 36” with an additional canvas border
Call the Gallery for More Information