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THE BEAR MUSEUM
The Berenstains Before the Bears: "The Apotheosis of Childhood."This is a regular series of features at the Bear Museum which focus on the early career of Stan and Jan, before they created the Bear family in 1962. These works are part of a traveling exhibition, Child’s Play on the Crabgrass Frontier, organized by The Strong Museum of Play. Accompanying the exhibition is a lavishly illustrated book, Child's Play: The Berenstain Baby Boom, 1946-1964: Cartoon Art by Stan and Jan Berenstain Having won acclaim for their family cartoons, in the late 1940s Stan and Jan set their sights on creating full color illustrations focusing on their specialty: children. These densely packed scenes— A mad, multitudinous moppet mob scene,” as Stan described them, “the apotheosis of childhood, a modern counterpart of Brueghel’s Children’s Games.”—were inspired by their Depression era youth. What they did not have in money they made up for in fun. Playing games, using their imagination, and most of all being with other kids. These covers and double spread interior illustrations for Colliers, one of the most popular magazines in the country in the 1950s, of scenes at recess, the Saturday matinee, kindergarten, the Art Museum were immediately popular and soon were issued as reproductions for readers. Even six decades later, these homages to child play bring the Berenstains appreciative letters.
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 © 2006, Berenstain Bears, Inc. | Visit The Berenstain Bears | Links Box 163, Bedminster, PA 18910 215-795-0228 Refund/Exchange Policy | Order Cancellation Policy |
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