Illustration from ALLISON copyright © 1997 by Allen Say, published by Houghton Mifflin Company
Exeter, NH (September 14, 2009)—From Wednesday, September 16 to Wednesday, October 28, the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy will present The Art of Allen Say: A Sense of Place, an exhibit of photographs, paintings and illustrations organized by The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. An opening reception will be held on Friday, September 18, 6:30-8 p.m. The Lamont Gallery is in the Frederick R. Mayer Art Center on Tan Lane. All events are free and open to the public.
Organized in 2007, in honor of Say’s 70th birthday, this exhibit explores both the technical mastery and thematic complexity of this prolific artist and author. Trained as a commercial photographer, Say found his place writing and illustrating children’s books somewhat by chance in the 1970s. Author of more than 20 works since then, including Grandfather’s Journey (1993), which won the Caldecott Medal in 1994, Say has spent much of his career exploring the rich divide between his Japanese youth and his American coming of age. Say’s works speak directly to children, skillfully conveying sentiments of alienation and dislocation. Comprised mostly of Say’s illustrations for books, the exhibit also includes examples of his commercial photography and oil paintings, underscoring the full measure of Say’s creative talent and his unifying aesthetic.
Say was born in Yokohama, Japan in 1937, to a Korean father and Japanese-American mother from Oakland, CA, who divorced when he was 8; and he went to live with his father. As a teenager, he apprenticed himself to a cartoonist, Noro Shimpei, after he was enrolled in school in Tokyo. Four years later, he relocated to California with his father, and eventually enrolled in public high school, where he began taking college-level art classes. After graduation, a year of living in Japan and returning to the U.S., Say apprenticed under a sign painter. He soon discovered little satisfaction in painting other people’s ideas, quit and married, and enrolled in college in northern California to study architecture.
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Illustration from TEA WITH MILK copyright © 1999 by Allen, Say published by Houghton Mifflin Company
While serving two years in the U.S. Army in Germany, Say’s photographic work was discovered and published in the military newspaper, Stars and Stripes. He returned to California and pursued commercial photography and eventually became a freelance illustrator, and published his first book in 1972, Dr. Smith’s Safari. Over the next 10 years, Say continued writing and illustrating books with his photography. In 1979, he published his only novel to date, The Ink-Keeper’s Apprentice, about a selected autobiographical period when Say discovered his desire to be an artist. During the 1980s, he illustrated How My Parents Eat (1984), a children’s story about families learning about cultural diversity; and The Boy of the Three-Year Nap (1988), a retelling of an old Japanese folk tale, which won a Caldecott Honor Award and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award.
Among his 20-plus published works, Say’s stories and illustrations include a wide range of subjects, such as: overcoming cultural and physical stereotypes; a search for a lost paradise; cultural diversity; ageism and aging; and an adopted child’s questions about belonging. In 2000, the first retrospective of Say’s work in children’s literature was held by the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.
“The Lamont Gallery is pleased to have the opportunity to present Allen Say’s work to our students and the community. It is an extraordinary exhibition of such a talented artist and author. We are also honored to work so closely with The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, who organized the exhibition,” says Lamont Gallery Manager Sara Zela.
Gallery hours are Mondays 1–5 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; closed on Sundays. For further information, contact the Lamont Gallery at 603-777-3461. For directions to Phillips Exeter Academy, call 603-777-4330. A complete list of upcoming events is available on the Phillips Exeter Academy public events line at 603-777-4309 and on our website.
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