Eric Carle, Illustration for The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse. Collection of The Eric and Barbara Carle Foundation. © 2011 Penguin Random House LLC.
Eric Carle’s Modernist Inspirations
Eric Carle’s Modernist Inspirations will examine the movements and artists that shaped Eric Carle’s distinctive visual language. The exhibition traces Carle’s formative years in Germany, when his art teacher secretly introduced him to the so-called “degenerate” artists banned by the regime, making a lasting impression on Carle’s own work. The exhibition will highlight his admiration for the Bauhaus school and the Der Blaue Reiter group, presenting selections from his oeuvre in dialogue with works by modernist figures such as Anni Albers, Marc Chagall, Sonia Delaunay, Shizuo Fujimori, Paul Klee, Oscar Kokoschka, Fernand Léger, August Macke, René Magritte, Franz Marc, and Pablo Picasso. (Note: the exhibition will have two rotations of works, one from September 19, 2026 – February 28, 2027, and the second from March 6, 2027 – September 6, 2027.)
On view September 19, 2026 to February 28, 2027: Franz Marc, Genesis: Creation of the Animals I, 1914. Gift of Mrs. John Wintersteen (Bernice M. McIlhenny), class of 1925, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts, SC 1957.72. Public domain.
On view September 19, 2026 to February 28, 2027: Eric Carle, Illustration for The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse. Collection of The Eric and Barbara Carle Foundation. © 2011 Penguin Random House LLC.