At last I saw the exhibit of Eric Carle’s modernistic art.  Just wow!  His inspirations were far more than I knew.

This was his first:

There has not been a book or story that changed my life.  But there was Miss Frickey, my first grade teacher in Syracuse NY, who changed my life by telling my parents to support and nourish my love for making pictures.

Carle arrived in New York City in his early 20’s, just as Abstract Expressionism reached its height.  This is one of my favorites:

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let’s go back to Germany where he was an art student.  Carle’s art lessons were woodblock prints.  He was inspired by Oskar Kokoshka who did lithographs as well as woodblock prints.

Carle was inspired to tell the story of Rumpelstiltskin with woodblock prints.

Paul Klee, deemed one of the ‘degenerate’ artists by the Nazi party, was a huge influence on Carle.  Coming face-to-face with this famous painting was a drop to your knees moment.

Carle would often sharpen his observation skills, showing the same appreciation for geometary as in his linoleum prints.

Fernand Leger’s cubistic style of art was a big influence on Carle.

And of course Franz Marc was a major influence.  His Large Blue Horses is famous, and one that my preschoolers love every year.  Have you ever wondered why the horse is blue in Brown Bear, Brown Bear?  Now you know. Carle wrote a book, The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse, as a tribute to Marc.

I love the endpapers for the book.

Vasily Kandinsky and Franz Marc co founded the Blaue Reiter group of artists who moved away from realism to abstractionism.  Kandinsky’s art is colorful and expressive, and the museum had a piece that was very intriguiging.

My students love Kandinsky’s art.  Every museum I visit I ask the curator if they have a Kandinsky. Nope.  Even the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC did not.  I was at the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College a few years ago, and there was a Kandinsky.  My friends thought I was having a heart attack.

Seeing the art you know but have never seen -live- is a tremendous experience.  I can only imagine how Eric Carle must have felt seeing art for the first time.

Picasso was a huge influence on Carle.  Here are some of his sculptures.

Jennie