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| A Kewpie pointing the way |
by Bruce Guthrie
Photo obsessive
The Sordoni Art Gallery at Wilkes University has an amazing exhibit on the works of cartoonist, illustrator, artist and writer Rose O'Neill. O'Neill, who died in 1944, is credited as the first female cartoonist published in the United States. She was the creator of the Kewpies (see some of the images below). Personally, I've been weirded out by the cute characters but I grew up on Talking Tina, Smurfs, and Chuckie. Back in 1909 when the characters made their debut in Ladies' Home Journal, this wasn't an issue. The characters were immensely popular in print and were manufactured as bisque dolls starting in 1912, becoming one of the first mass-marketed toys in the United States.
O'Neill retained the rights to her creation and made a fortune using them in books as well as advertising for companies like Jell-O. She also did unrelated illustrations for books and magazines like Puck. The exhibit covers the whole range of her illustrated life. It also includes some of the Kewpie bisques and other sculptures. (Again, I found the Kewpie dolls to be pretty creepy.) The Jell-O advertisement pieces came from the Jell-O museum. (Yep! There's a Jell-O museum!) Other pieces came from the Norman Rockwell Museum, private collectors, and a whole bunch of other sources.
I got a kick out of looking at her signature for the Kewpie drawings -- in some cases it morphed into a figure participating in the story.
I had to ask if she drew any non-white Kewpies. Apparently not. She did a black Kewpie doll (which, to me, looked even creepier than the the others) because she thought representation was important but, like Norman Rockwell, she worked within publisher limits and they didn't want black characters offending snowflake southern whites. Rockwell quit doing the Saturday Evening Post covers because they said he was only allowed to show blacks in servile roles. Rose drew some black characters in Puck cartoons. The signage says that she avoided stereotypes and "she made the definite choice to show people of color, women, and the poor and unhoused with dignity and truth."
A lot of her work was destroyed in a fire but what they had in the show was really impressive, covering all aspects of her career. The latter career pieces included a pin-up (she did four of them in the 1930s -- the signage sounded like she did it because she was short on cash, having lost a bundle in the Depression) and some from her truly different "Sweet Monsters" series as well as art she did for novels that she wrote. She published her first novel, "The Loves of Edwy," in 1904.
The show catalog was 172 pages and measures 12" by 10". You can pick up one free copy at the gallery but otherwise they request a $30 contribution. It's worth it.
Like with the Ralph Steadman exhibit at American University's Katzen Arts Center back in 2018 (which had splatter paint on random walls), there are Kewpie characters appearing in random places on the museum walls.
O'Neill, BTW, was born and spent her first couple of years within blocks of where the gallery is today. The gallery's first exhibit 50 years ago was George Caitlin, who was also born in Wilkes-Barre. The other sort of big name artist from there was Franz Kline.
My obsessive photo shoot is on:
http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2023_09_24B1_Sordoni_Rose
The One Rose: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Rose O’Neill
Sordoni Art Gallery 50th Anniversary Exhibition
Aug. 25 - Oct. 8, 2023
https://www.wilkes.edu/about-wilkes/arts/sordoni-art-gallery/exhibitions-and-events/index.aspx
