{"id":1409,"date":"2015-09-29T19:08:57","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T19:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/nclc\/?p=1409"},"modified":"2015-09-29T19:08:57","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T19:08:57","slug":"esphyr-slobodkina-modernist-childrens-book-illustratorauthor-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/2015\/09\/29\/esphyr-slobodkina-modernist-childrens-book-illustratorauthor-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Esphyr Slobodkina \u2013 Modernist (Children\u2019s Book) Illustrator\/Author"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by JoAnn Conrad, Recipient of the 2015 Billie M. Levy Travel and Research Grant<\/p>\n<p>Part of my ongoing research into children\u2019s picturebooks of the mid-twentieth century has to do with the ways in which the work of illustrators has insinuated itself into the public memory even as the names of individual artists may be relatively obscure. This is the case with the rare female artist and, particularly, Esphyr Slobodkina, as her influence is inversely proportional to the obscurity of her name. \u00a0\u201cEsphyr Slobodkina . . .helped pave the way for the acceptance of abstract art in the United States and translate[d] European modernism into an American idiom.\u201d[1]<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/files\/2015\/09\/fig2hats02.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-5902\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/files\/2015\/09\/fig2hats02.jpg\" alt=\"fig2hats02\" width=\"245\" height=\"245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/files\/2015\/09\/fig2hats02.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/files\/2015\/09\/fig2hats02-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 245px) 100vw, 245px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/files\/2015\/09\/fig1hatsrev.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-5903\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/files\/2015\/09\/fig1hatsrev-232x300.jpg\" alt=\"fig1hatsrev\" width=\"190\" height=\"242\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A simple and serendipitous anecdote demonstrates this: While researching her papers at UConn\u2019s Archives and Special Collections\u00a0this summer, I was living across the street from the UConn Bookstore. One day, I noticed a display in the window announcing \u201cCaps for Sale\u201d [Fig. 1], clearly alluding to one of Slobodkina\u2019s most popular books of the same name [Fig. 2]. The power of the sale poster derives from and depends on the reference to the book, which is assumed to be automatic.<\/p>\n<p>There is a fair amount about Slobodkina\u2019s life and work available. The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/doddcenter.uconn.edu\/asc\/findaids\/slobodkina\/MSS19970050.html\">Finding Aid for the Slobodkina Papers<\/a> at Archives and Special Collections provides a brief biography as does the website of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slobodkinafoundation.org\/about\/\">Esphyr Slobodkina Foundation<\/a>. \u00a0The 2009 <em>Rediscovering Slobodkina: A Pioneer of American Abstraction<\/em>\u00a0includes information on her life as well as her contributions to the art world, but the full biography has yet to be written. \u00a0Esphyr Slobodkina anticipated that it would be written, however, and drafted a comprehensive, detailed, 5-volume manuscript \u201cNotes for a Biographer\u201d which resides in her papers.\u00a0The\u00a0Slobodkina Papers contain much more than is in her books \u2013 things that would never be published but which give a researcher like me access to insights into the thoughts and motivations of the artist. One of the pleasures of this kind of archival research is not only this intimate and personal connection one makes across time, but also the unexpected revelations into the personality of the artist that informs her work. My intention here is to provide some of those \u201coff the books\u201d glimpses into the work and person \u2013 Esphyr Slobodkina.<\/p>\n<p>Esphyr Slobodkina was born to a wealthy Russian-Jewish family in Russia before the\u00a0Revolution. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/2015\/09\/29\/esphyr-slobodkina-modernist-childrens-book-illustratorauthor\/\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by JoAnn Conrad, Recipient of the 2015 Billie M. Levy Travel and Research Grant Part of my ongoing research into children\u2019s picturebooks of the mid-twentieth century has to do with the ways in which the work of illustrators has insinuated &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/2015\/09\/29\/esphyr-slobodkina-modernist-childrens-book-illustratorauthor-2\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[351,369,364,1,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}