AWARD WINNING AUTHORS AT TCNJ: Floyd Cooper’s cover image for his 2013 children’s book Max and the Tag-Along Moon, published by Philomel Books, is included in The College of New Jersey’s fall exhibition, “Visual Voyage: Exploring the Media and Styles of Award Winning Children’s Book Illustrators.” Some 50 works by 20 renowned picture book artists will be on view through December 14. For more information, call (609) 771-2633, or visit tcnj.edu/artgallery. (Image Courtesy of the Artist)

The College of New Jersey’s (TCNJ) fall exhibition from October 22 through December 14, “Visual Voyage: Exploring the Media and Styles of Award Winning Children’s Book Illustrators,” showcases more than 50 works of art by renowned picture book artists, including Mary Azarian, Eric Carle, Floyd Cooper, Gérard DuBois, Trina Schart Hyman, Steve Jenkins, Leo Lionni, Ted Lewin, E. B. Lewis, Emily Arnold McCully, Brian Pinkney, Jerry Pinkney, Peggy Rathmann, Jan Reynolds, Faith Ringgold, William Steig, Duncan Tonatiuh, Chris Van Allsburg, David Wisniewski, and Paul O. Zelinsky.

The exhibition and all related programs are free and open to the public.

All of the artists are internationally known and represent the highest caliber of children’s book illustrators reflected in the number of whom have been awarded Caldecott Medals and Honor Medals; Coretta Scott King Medals and Honor Medals, Pura Belpré Medals and Honor Medals, plus a myriad of other awards.

The exhibition presents the diversity of media and styles that these award-winning illustrators use in their picture book art. The guidelines for the Caldecott Medal, the top prize for an American illustrator, state that illustrations in a picture book must be appropriate, flow seamlessly, and work together with the text. An illustrator’s style and medium must complement the story, i.e., must complete the story and not fight it, overwhelm it, or denigrate it. The exhibition features illustrations that are realistic, surrealist, impressionist, expressionist, and naïve. Watercolors, oils, acrylics, collages, prints, drawings, and photographs are a few ways in which the illustrators in the exhibition bring stories to life.

Related programs include a lecture by Dr. Nick Clark, chief curator of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, who will speak about “Invention and Appropriation in 20th-century Picture Book Art,” Wednesday, October 22, at 4 p.m. in the Art and Interactive Multimedia (AIMM) Building, Room 125. His talk is immediately prior to the exhibition opening, from 5 to 7 p.m. Caldecott Award winner E. B. Lewis will talk about his career as an artist and illustrator on Friday, November 7, at 12:30 p.m.

TCNJ Art Gallery is located in the AIMM Building on the campus at 2000 Pennington Road in Ewing. Gallery hours are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from noon to 7 p.m., and Sundays from 1 to 3 p.m. For more information, call (609) 771-2633, or visit tcnj.edu/artgallery.

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