30.8.03

UM ESPÓLIO INCONTORNÁVEL A notícia vem hoje na "Actual", do Expresso:

"A Biblioteca do Congresso dos Estados Unidos anunciou a aquisição de um acervo constituído por ilustrações, cartoons, tiras de BD, têmperas em celulóide (caso da «Branca de Neve» da equipa de Walt Disney). No total são 30 mil originais até agora propriedade do cartoonista Arthur Wood Jr., que já tinha fundado um mal sucedido museu em Washington, que encerrou em 1997 por falta de apoios. Prometida para a Primavera de 2005 está uma exposição e o respectivo catálogo."


Richard F. Outcault (1863-1928) , Yellow Kid

Entretanto, no site da Biblioteca do Congresso já é possível consultar várias informações sobre este acervo, bem como alguns trabalhos. Durante seis décadas, Arthur Wood Jr. coleccionou, entre outras coisas, inúmeros testemunhos originais de alguns dos mais importantes autores de bd, cartoon e ilustração dos últimos dois séculos.
A Biblioteca do Congresso apresenta deste modo a nova aquisição:

"Among the recent acquisitions of the Library of Congress is the world's largest and most spectacular private collection of original cartoon art. Assembled over the course of sixty years by J. Arthur Wood, Jr., the Art Wood Collection of Caricature and Cartoon more than doubles the Library's existing holdings in this area. A true "Gift to the Nation," it contains an estimated 36,000 works by more than 2,800 artists, and includes a comprehensive array of political cartoons, caricatures, comic strips, humor cartoons, illustrations, and animation cels. Virtually every aspect of the genre is represented by leading creators, making the Library's cartoon collections both comprehensive and unrivaled in the United States.

It is eminently appropriate that Art Wood's collection be placed at the Library of Congress. At the age of sixteen he worked for a summer as an elevator boy and hatrack attendant at the Library for the express purpose of studying the book and periodical collections relating to caricature and cartoon. He applied the knowledge he gained that summer well and, after six decades of personal collecting, the results of that youthful dedication have come full circle.

Housed in the Prints and Photographs Division, this magnificent acquisition preserves for the nation an astounding legacy of original graphic art, and establishes the Library as the premier center for the study of original cartoon art and illustration in the United States. It has come to the Library of Congress through a gift-purchase agreement made possible in part by a generous contribution from H. Fred Krimendahl II, a member of the Library's Madison Council, funds provided by American taxpayers, and the generosity of Mr. Wood himself."


Espreitem aqui, que vale mesmo a pena.

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