"The illustrator, designer, and writer Edward Gorey (1925-2000) is beloved for his droll, surreal, and slightly sinister drawings. Gorey's Worlds delves into the numerous and surprising cultural and artistic sources that influenced Gorey's unique visual language. A variety of objects shaped his artistic mindset, from popular culture to the more than 26,000 books he owned and the works of art in his vast collection. This collection, which Gorey gifted to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art upon his death, is diverse in style, subject, and media, and includes prints by Eugene Delacroix, Charles Meryon, Edvard Munch, and Odilon Redon; photographs by Eugene Atget; and drawings by Balthus, Pierre Bonnard, Charles Burchfield, Bill Traylor, and Edouard Vuillard. The essays in Gorey's Worlds also examine such consuming passions as animals--cats in particular--and ballet. Featuring a sumptuous selection of Gorey's creations alongside his fascinating and diverse collections, Gorey's Worlds reveals the private world that inspired one of the most idiosyncratic artists of the twentieth century"--
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bookclub4m non-fiction art genre
Very interesting! Several essay length explorations of Gorey's influences. It was inspired by the donation of his private ‘accumulation' of art after his death to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. The topics include Gorey's personal art collection, his interest in ballet, his use of animal figures, and nonsense literature + surrealism. Each text is well illustrated by Gorey's work and those that might have influenced him. I have a small collection of Gorey's books but I had no idea about his life, so I enjoyed this thoroughly (he also looks like my old highschool English teacher!)
