Eric Carle
No one’s life—not the least Eric Carle’s—can be neatly encapsulated in a timeline. Here we present some of the highlights, the pivotal moments, and notable accomplishments that marked Eric’s eventful life and illustrious career.
Eric Carle is born on June 25th in Syracuse, New York, to German immigrants Erich and Johanna.
The Carles return to Stuttgart, where Eric will spend his youth. When he is around 12, he will be exposed to modern art, which the Nazis have banned as “degenerate,” by a daring teacher, Friedrich Krauss.
This undated two-color print was created during Eric’s student years at the State Academy of Art in Stuttgart, where he studied Bauhaus principles of typography and graphic design. Printed on ordinary newsprint, this study’s open form, calligraphic in character, evokes both architecture and sculpture.
The emphasis on clarity, reduction of form, and the integration of text and image that shaped Eric’s early training are evident in the pared-down geometry and disciplined use of color. These same principles would later inform his collage practice, where simplicity of form and chromatic contrasts remained defining hallmarks of his art.
Equally striking is the large expanse of negative space at left—an early instance of Eric’s sensitivity to “white space,” a compositional strategy that would later become a distinguishing characteristic of his picture book collages.
Eric enrolls in the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, where he studies graphic design with Bauhaus-trained artists and typography under the influential book designer F. H. Ernst Schneidler.
Eric’s first professional job, for Amerika Haus, a cultural exchange program, is for an exhibit of West African art. He becomes an art director at fashion magazine Schwabe: Der neue Schnitt.
This two-color offset poster, designed in 1950 for an exhibition on mid-century architecture, was created by Eric for the Office of Land Management’s Cultural Institutions Division. The black, hand-rendered, abstract design alludes to the stacked blocks of a four-story building; whimsical and minimal, it is in direct contrast to the formal rendering of a modernist structure seen in the halftone to the right.
When Eric designed this poster, he was nearing completion of his studies in graphic design and was granted the opportunity to produce visual materials for the division’s programs in Stuttgart. He recalled that this initial submission was deemed “unacceptable,” but his persistence was ultimately rewarded: over the next four years, Eric designed a series of twelve posters for Amerika Haus, a U.S.-funded initiative promoting democratic values and cultural exchange through exhibitions and performances.
Eric returns to New York, where his portfolio impresses future children’s illustrator Leo Lionni, then art director of Fortune. He recommends Eric to George Krikorian, art director at The New York Times.
Five months after getting the Times job, Eric is drafted and posted back to Germany. He creates more posters and meets and marries Dorothea Wohlenberg.
Eric returns with Dorothea to New York and his job at The New York Times in the promotions department. They will have two children, Cirsten and Rolf, and divorce in 1963. Eric moves to 50 West 12th Street in Greenwich Village.
Eric becomes art director for L. W. Frohlich, a pharmaceutical advertising agency. For Eric, advertising isn’t just a day job: he finds in its challenges an endless source of creative inspiration.
Eric quits Madison Avenue to become a freelance illustrator and artist. Among his designs are book jackets and album covers, which provide new canvases for his boundless imagination.
Eric illustrates his first book, the classic American cookbook Red Flannel Hash and Shoo-Fly Pie. The assignment comes from Ann Beneduce, an editor with whom he will soon embark on a long partnership.
Eric’s campaign for antihistamine Chlor-Trimeton featuring tissue paper-collaged animals inspires author Bill Martin Jr. to ask him to illustrate Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Eric publishes The Very Hungry Caterpillar, his second and most successful children’s book, bringing his adventurous approach to collage, graphic design, and typography to a new audience.
Eric Carle marries Barbara Morrison, known to all as Bobbie. A Montessori teacher, Bobbie will co-found a preschool for children with special needs when the couple moves from Greenwich Village to Massachusetts.
Linoleum cut wedding invitation for Eric and Bobbie’s wedding in 1973.
Eric publishes Draw Me A Star, which will land on banned-book lists due to an illustration of a naked man and woman. In some instances, schools will cover the figures with paper clothes.
Impressed by Japan’s museums of picture book art, Eric and Bobbie open The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts, on Bobbie’s birthday, November 22nd.
Eric pays homage to Herr Krauss, the teacher who surreptitiously showed him “degenerate art,” with The Artist Who Painted A Blue Horse, inspired by the work of the German Expressionist Franz Marc.
The Eric Carle Museum presents Beyond Books: The Independent Art of Eric Carle, the first survey of his fine art. This exhibition will travel to the Tacoma Art Museum.
The Eric Carle Museum presents Eric’s Angels: An Homage to Paul Klee.
Eric Carle dies at age 91 in Northampton, Massachusetts, bequeathing his non-picture book art to The Eric and Barbara Carle Foundation.