Gorey Elephants on Parade

The Cartoon Art Museum hosts Gorey Elephants on Parade, an exhibit of rare prints created by celebrated author and artist Edward Gorey, on display from August 5 through December 15, 2024.

Gorey's successful turn as the designer of the Broadway production of Dracula in the late 1970s allowed him the financial security and the clout to choose his own artistic projects for the first time in his career, and he used his creative freedom to produce experimental and eccentric books through his own Fantod Press and to explore the challenge of fine art printmaking.

Throughout the 1980s, at the Cape Cod Conservatory and later at the Atelier Emily Trevor, Gorey developed his skills in the arts of etching, engraving and collagraphy, a process of collaging various textures and materials to the paper on which a print will be taken.

Although several of Gorey's fine art prints reflect the elegance of his meticulous book illustrations, most display a looser, sweeping energy and a dark, forceful stand. Although we do not know what led to Gorey's fascination with elephants, we do know that he favored printmaking, especially the various states that could only be obtained through the arts of etching and engraving, "because you never know what you're going to get."

Featured artwork selected by Cartoon Art Museum founder and Gorey enthusiast Malcolm Whyte includes the etchings and lithographs Pink Elephant in Handstand, Swimming Elephant in Green Water, Elephant in Sea Foam, Elephant with Prostate Passenger, and Departing Elephant on One Leg, rarities that showcase the talent and the uninhibited spirit of Edward Gorey.