Beginning October 12, 2007, the Toledo Museum of Art's Canaday Gallery becomes a construction site for a ship, a medieval cathedral, and an entire Roman city. In fact, each of these projects is a book by David Macaulay, Caldecott Medal-winning author and illustrator of Cathedral, Unbuilding, The Way Things Work, and many others.
The new exhibition Building Books: The Art of David Macaulay, features more than 100 works of art, studies, sketchbooks, and manuscripts that reveal Macaulay's talent for creating art that demystifies complex systems, buildings, and processes.
"Macaulay's drawings are not only educational, revealing the hidden life of objects, but they are playful, delightful, and humorous as well," said TMA associate curator of modern and contemporary art Dr. Amy Gilman. "This duality moves each work from being merely a technical schematic into a
storytelling mode—you forget that you are learning something, and get wrapped up in the charming worlds he creates."
Building Books brings together many different projects to best demonstrate Macaulay's artistic approach and critical thinking process. Parts of the exhibition focus on Macaulay's ability to creatively render the inner workings of everyday objects, the makings of the world's most complex architecture, and the intricacies of the human body. Included are original drawings from The New Way Things Work, Cathedral, Mill, City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction, Underground, Unbuilding, Pyramid, Mosque, and others.
Always at the center of Macaulay's thinking is the unpredictable—and sometimes frustrating—evolution of ideas. The exhibition also explores books – both published and unpublished – that are inspired by Macaulay's love of travel and his appreciation for imagination. Original drawings, paintings, sketches, book dummies, and manuscripts represent the books: Rome Antics, Angelo, Shortcut, Why the Chicken Crossed the Road, Black and White, Baaa, and others. In one of the most revealing sections of the exhibition the viewer sees the creation of a book (Ship) from concept to completion, including Macaulay's preliminary drawings (including some made underwater), research and photographs, early layouts, a three-dimensional model ship, and finished art and text.
DAVID MACAULAY
An illustrator and educator with a background in architecture, Macaulay published Cathedral, his first original work, in 1973. The book revealed his gift for explaining complex concepts for readers of all ages and has remained in print for more than 30 years. His subsequent books have sold more than two million copies in the U.S. and have earned him numerous awards, including a Caldecott Medal and a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship. -- www.toledomuseum.org
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