Fairy Tale Art: Illustrations from Children’s Books

Take a magic journey to a timeless, enchanted, dream-like world with Fairy Tale Art: Illustrations from Children’s Books, curated by Sylvia Nissley.

This exhibition features 59 original illustrations from well-loved classic fairy tales (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood) as well as modern versions (Cinderella’s Dress, Child of the Faerie: Child of the Earth and The Hungry Coat).

The fairy tales and folk tales featured in the exhibit celebrate stories handed down through the ages that echo the wisdom of past cultures and honor the symbolic and metaphoric language of the stories.

Realistic styles had dominated the modern illustration world of children’s literature. But when the picture book format became popular in the 1960s, artistic imaginations soared as artists rendered the dream world and created fantastic settings of fairy tales. The landscape of the stories is rich in illusion, archetypes, imagination and creativity.

The artworks reflect a variety of mediums such as watercolor, acrylic, colored pencil and mixed media. Prize-winning contemporary artists whose art is featured include: Kinuko Y. Craft, Trina Schart Hyman, Barry Moser, Demi, Susan Paradis, Jim LaMarche, Jane Dyer and Marilee Heyer.

Fairy tales can smooth the uncertainties of today’s world with a magic carpet ride that transports both child and adult to the realm of wonder and enchantment. To be touched by these stories is to keep alive the archetypes that are vital to knowledge of history and cultures. The fantastic illustrations in Fairy Tale Art help fill the human longing for something beautiful, new and wonderful.

Sylvia Nissley, an independent exhibition coordinator in Sarasota, Fla., curated this exhibition. The showing here in Stockton is part of a two and half year national tour developed and managed by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services, an exhibition company located in Kansas City, Miss.