Now that the holidays are over, and the streets of Manhattan are less congested, there is no excuse to miss “The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats,” which runs through Jan. 29 at the Jewish Museum. The exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversary of Keats’ beloved Caldecott Medal-winner, “The Snowy Day,” and pays tribute to a pioneer in children’s literature.
Curated by Claudia Nahson, the show highlights the iconic picture book and features more than 80 original works by the artist. Visitors will enjoy viewing Keats’ preliminary sketches, storyboards and dummy books, as well as final illustrations and paintings. Letters and photographs also provide insight into Keats’ life and art. Before the end of the exhibit, readers — young and old — can settle down in a Keats-inspired urban landscape and browse through his many books.
Jacob “Jack” Ezra Katz was born in Brooklyn in 1916. His parents, Eastern European Jewish immigrants, were poor, and the family lived in an East New York tenement for most of Keats’ childhood. Exposed to poverty and anti-Semitism, Keats developed an early sympathy for others suffering from deprivation and prejudice. He understood what it felt like to be an outsider, and this social isolation became a common theme in his work. As a young boy, he used art as a means of escape and learned that his talent could help him overcome obstacles in life.
Primarily self-taught, Keats spent his early years drawing and painting. He doodled at home, and his mother supported his artistic talent. His father discouraged it. It wasn’t until Keats sold a painted sign to a store for 25 cents that his father accepted that his son might make a living doing what he loved.
During the 1930s, Keats worked as a comic book artist and a mural painter for the Works Progress Administration. While serving in World War II, he reacted to anti-Semitism by legally changing his name to Ezra Jack Keats. He spent a brief, but productive, period studying painting in Paris in 1949, and in the next decade, worked as an illustrator for several publications including Reader’s Digest, the New York Times Book Review and Colliers.
Keats co-authored his first book, “My Dog is Lost,” in 1960. This story features a youngster named Juanito who searches for his lost dog in the streets of New York. In his memoirs, Keats mentions a 9-year-old Puerto Rican boy who he spent time with in the 1950s. The main character is based on this boy, although when the story was written, multiculturalism in children’s books was not mainstream.
Two years later, “The Snowy Day,” was published. This full-color picture book came out at the height of America’s civil rights movement, and depicted an African-American boy named Peter enjoying the snow for the first time.
In 1962, picture books featuring minority children were still rare. Other than a few publications that were not widely distributed, African Americans were mostly represented in racist caricatures. Keats’ gritty urban settings were also new to picture books.
Despite the overall groundbreaking success of “The Snowy Day,” Keats’ book also received criticism. In a 1965 essay in The Saturday Review, Nancy Larrick described Peter’s mother as a stereotypical mammy and attacked Keats for not addressing Peter’s race in the text. The author responded to Larrick’s comments with a sarcastic remark at the end of his letter: “Might I suggest armbands?” Keats achieved his goal of representing a black character equally to a white one and did not feel the need to apologize for his work.
Overall, “The Snowy Day” was widely embraced by the public. Since its publication, it has been translated into 10 languages and has sold millions of copies. (A letter of praise from Langston Hughes is on display at the museum.) Every child, regardless of race, ethnicity or social background can relate to the character of Peter, and readers celebrated this.
Keats masterfully used his personal experiences to tell powerful stories through the use of simple language and rich, vivid illustrations inspired by haiku poetry and Asian art. In “Goggles!” (1969), Keats’ first autobiographical book, he drew on his run-ins with bullies. When he was a child, one of his drawings spared him a confrontation with an older boy who was impressed by his work. The author called “Goggles!” a “triumph of brains over brawn.”
Keats described his next book, “Apt. 3” (1971), as “closest to me in personal experience and one of the most important things I have ever done.” This book, along with “Dreams” (1974), a mood piece, is based on his memories of tenement living.
Between 1975 and 1981, Keats wrote a series of picture books with another African-American protagonist named Louie (“Louie,” 1975; “The Trip,” 1978; “Louie’s Search,” 1980; “Regards to the Man in the Moon,” 1981). Louie struggles with feelings of isolation and invisibility — as did Keats early in his life. The four stories are modeled after Keats’ own experiences, as well as significant people in his childhood. Despite the deep connection between Keats’ life and work, his art transcends the personal and reflects the universal concerns of children.
By the end of his life in 1983, Keats had illustrated more than 85 books (and authored 22), most of them for children. His work expresses the hope, joy and beauty that exist even in an impoverished, dilapidated world. Keats’ memories also helped to shape his view of humanity.
“If we could really see (‘see’ as perceive, understand, discover) each other exactly as the other is, this would be a different world,” he said.
Indeed, Keats has influenced the way many see by sharing his inner world and talent with readers all over the globe.
“The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats” at the Jewish Museum [1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd Street in Manhattan, (212) 423-3200] is on display through Jan. 29. For more, visit thejewishmuseum.org.
Teacher and freelance writer Laura Varoscak-DeInnocentiis is a regular contributor to New York Parenting Media. She has won numerous editorial awards from the Parenting Media Association. She holds master’s degrees in fiction writing, education and psychology. She lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and is the proud mom of two sons, Henry and Charlie. Visit her webpage (www.examiner.com/parenting-in-new-york/laura-varoscak) for more articles on parenting.
