Madeleine Gekiere

Madeleine Gekiere (May 15, 1919 - July 2, 2014), was an American multi-disciplinary artist, illustrator, filmmaker and author. She is known for her drawings and mixed media paintings, as well as her short films, short stories and illustrated books. She illustrated Ray Bradbury’s 1995 novel Switch on the Night. Four books illustrated by Gekiere were chosen New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books of the Year from 1952 to 2002.

Life and education Madeleine Gekiere was born in Zurich in 1919 and graduated from school in 1938. Fearing that Switzerland might be invaded by Nazis, her Jewish family came to America when Madeleine was 20 years old. She studied at New York University, the Art Students League, and Brooklyn Museum School. Gekiere taught painting at City College in New York for more than 23 years. Madeleine was married to an actor Paul Potter.

Art Having completed her studies at New York University, the Art Students League, and Brooklyn Museum School, Gekiere found her way as an artist, painter and sculptor. Her early drawing and paintings explore modernist abstraction and feature an earthy palette of blacks, browns and tans, while her later works experiment with assemblage, using everyday objects implying connections to figurative forms, like light bulbs, wood handles, toys, hosiery and books. and The Frilly Lily and the Princess, 1960 and many books by other authors. She illustrated several books for the poet John Ciardi

During 1970s and 1980s Gekiere made experimental short films, and recently, the Anthology Film Archives screened her collection including the 1980 film Chewing.

Exhibitions and collections Madeleine Gekiere exhibited with Fred Torres Collaborations.

Gekiere’s art is in permanent collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Baltimore Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the New York Public Library.

Works Books illustrated (selection) Mrs. McThing, a play, Mary Chase, 1952 Gwendolyn, Ruth H Helm, 1952 Mr. Putterbee’s jungle, Ruth H Helm, 1953 Who gave us … peacocks? planes? & ferris wheels? Madeleine Gekiere, 1953 Grimm’s tales, Jacob Grimm, 1954 Peterli and the mountain, Georgia Engelhard, 1954 Switch on the night, Ray Bradbury, 1955 The fisherman and his wife, Jacob Grimm, 1957 The reason for the pelican, John Ciardi, 1959 The frilly lily and the princess, Madeleine Gekiere, 1960 John J. Plenty and Fiddler Dan: a new fable of the grasshopper and the ant, John Ciardi, 1963

Filmography (selection) Three accelerations, 1970-1979 Horizontal transfer, 1975 The Breakable spaces between, 1980 Arabesque for Marie Menken, 1982 The Garden of Hieronymus, 1982 They are not Chrysanthemums: Only Man Can Make a Rivet, 1984