ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
WONDER STORIES: Pulp Art Illustration from the NBMAA Collection
On view in the Sanford B.D. Low Illustration Gallery at the NBMAA & at the Delamar West Hartford
The Museum’s celebrated collection of Pulp Art illustration will be on view at the NBMAA and the Delamar Hotel in West Hartford, in a two-part exhibition highlighting the compelling narrative imagery depicted by artists of this genre.
From the Great Depression through the era of World War II, Americans turned to inexpensive novels referred to as “pulp-fiction” as a form of entertainment and a way to escape their woes. These gripping stories, conceived before the age of television, were suffused with adventure and mystery. Often produced as series, pulp-fiction gave rise to iconic characters, such as The Shadow, The Phantom Detective, and Doc Savage, who many consider the forefathers of today’s comic book superheroes.
Printed on low-grade wood-pulp paper, to which the term “pulp” refers, these books featured sensational, eye-catching illustrations. Buyers were immediately attracted to their cover art: the situations depicted were fraught with drama, their narratives simple and direct, and their colors vibrant. Although pulp-fiction publications were small, the original oil paintings that were created for reproduction as cover images often measured over 2 x 3 feet. Over the decades, almost all the original artwork commissioned by publishing houses from the leading illustrators of the day, including N. C. Wyeth, Frank R. Paul, and George Rozen, has been lost, as the paintings were only intended for one-time use and were then invariably discarded.
In the 1970s, collector Robert Lesser became one of the first people to recognize the relevance of such covers, not only aesthetically, but also as an important reflection of our material culture. He began to acquire what few examples he could find across the U.S., uniting the original texts with the illustrations produced for them. In 2013, he gifted his extraordinary collection of 200 pulp art illustrations to the New Britain Museum of American Art. Today, the Robert Lesser Collection represents the greatest assemblage of pulp art in this country, preserving the history of this exclusively American art form.
WONDER STORIES presents a selection of pulp masterworks from various genres, including crime, detective, western, science fiction, sports, and aviation. The imagery featured is a testament to the compelling narrative of the stories, as well as the imaginations of the artists, who transformed words into fantastical images.
Please Note: These works will not be on view September 23-October 9.