“Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak” opened on October 13 at Denver Art Museum, the largest retrospective of the work of the beloved American author and illustrator to date. The exhibition includes over 400 sketches, artworks, storyboards, and paintings by Sendak. Christoph Heinrich, the director of Denver Art Museum, called the large-scale show “a huge logistical undertaking,” telling viewers of a behind-the-scenes video posted on Rocky Mountain PBS YouTube that, “with more than 400 objects it’s very big… probably one of the most objects we’ve ever had in a show.”
Sendak was born in Brooklyn in 1928 to Jewish immigrant parents who had fled political turmoil in Poland. At 19, the young Sendak—almost entirely self-taught—began to illustrate his first books.
Author and illustrator Maurice Sendak standing by an life-size scene from his book Where the Wild Things Are at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. Photo by James Keyser/Getty Images.
Written across an illustrious 65-year career, Sendak is known for his children’s books including Where the Wild Things Are, Nutshell Library, Outside Over There, Alligators All Round, and In the Night Kitchen. He is the world’s most celebrated picture book artist in history, having won the Caldecott Medal and the Hans Christian Andersen Awards for children’s literature and illustration respectively, as well as the National Medal of Arts.
Installation view of the Maurice Sendak retrospective in Denver. Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post.
“Maurice Sendak tells stories of curiosity and courage, adventure and discovery, resilience and a deep understanding of the human desire for connection. He invented a new visual language and approach to figuration with almost every project he embarked on. Growing up in a family of Jewish immigrants from Poland folk stories and handed down traditions shaped his perspective as well as WWII and the Holocaust. This makes his personal perspective and artistic production immensely powerful and timeless.”
Here are four key items from the exhibition which is impressing critics.
Where The Wild Things Are Original Artworks
Original illustration for ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ (1963). Image courtesy of Denver Art Museum. © The Maurice Sendak Foundation.
Denver Art Museum’s Sendak retrospective takes its name after the artist’s most famous work: Where the Wild Things Are. The 1963 book—which has sold more than 19 million copies worldwide—follows the story of Max, a boy who enters a world of wild beasts from his bedroom and is eventually crowned the wildest among them. This original watercolor, ink, and graphite illustration shows Max’s happy descent into the mystical jungle.
Costumes from Sendak’s Theatrical Escapades
Costumes from the 2009 movie of ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ at ‘Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak’ (2024). Image courtesy of Denver Art Museum.
In addition to his books, Sendak worked on projects for theatre. This included designing the sets and writing the libretto for the Where the Wild Things Are opera which was first performed in 1980, set to music by British composer Oliver Knussen. Set designs for the opera are included in the exhibition along with costume designs Sedak created for productions of Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker during the 1980s. Costumes from the 2009 live-action, feature-length movie of Where the Wild Things Are also stand among the exhibits at DAM.
Newly-Restored Original ‘Scribbles’
Screengrab taken from Rocky Mountains PBS’ ‘Behind the scenes of Denver Art Museum’s Maurice Sendak ‘Wild Things’ exhibit’.
Heinrich explained in the PBS video that “Sendak kept everything – every piece of paper that he ever scribbled on is part of this amazing legacy”, and DAM Director of Conservation Sarah Melching then shows how she is working to conserve some of these beautiful “scribbles.” We watch as she fixed a tear in tan original illustration for 1962’s Alligators All Around using a wheat starch paste with a mylar spatula. Melching describes Sendak’s habit of listening to Mozart as he created his artwork, and how she has begun to do the same when conserving the artist’s work. References to Sendak’s other musical inspirations, including singer-songwriter Carole King, are noted on the walls of Wild Things.
Artworks by Sedak’s Idols
Install View of ‘Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak’ (2024). Image courtesy of Denver Art Museum.
Also on display are artworks by the creatives who most inspired Sendak, from fellow children’s classics author Beatrix Potter to the 18th century poet and artist William Blake. Work by American cartoonist Winsor McCay, Romantic painter George Stubbs, and animator Walt Disney feature. It was Disney’s 1940 movie ‘Fantasia’ that first inspired a then 12-year old Sendak to become an illustrator.
Images of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ book covers printed in different languages from around the world are on display. Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post.
“Sendak’s art has been meaningful for so many of us and will certainly be for future generations,” said Heinrich. “Wild Things not only offers visitors an opportunity to enjoy his original drawings for these books, but also to explore Sendak’s artistry and the depth and complexity of his exhaustively creative mind.”
Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak is open to view until February 17 2025.