Will Eisner, the Champion of the Graphic Novel, and one of the biggest pioneers of the format with his 1978< i>A Contract with God will be honored the Society of Illustrators in New York in March.
Eisner earned the Reuben Award, the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award, the Yellow Kid Award, and multiple Harvey Awards and Eisner Awards, of which he is the namesake.
The Society of Illustrators will host a two-floor retrospective curated by Denis Kitchen and John Lind that will display over 150 pieces that include original artwork from Smash Comics (1939); key sequences from Eisner’s graphic novels including A Contract with God, Life on Another Planet (1983), A Life Force (1988), To the Heart of the Storm (1991) and more than 40 pages of originals from The Spirit (1940-1952) newspaper section. The exhibit will also feature some of Eisner’s personal items including his studio drawing board, brushes, and awards. This is the largest Eisner exhibition ever in the United States.
The exhibit will be hosted at the Society of Illustrators building at 128 East 63rd Street between Lexington and Park in New York, NY 10065. The exhibit will run from March 1 to June 3, 2017.
An opening reception has been scheduled for March 10 between 7:30 PM to 11:00 PM. There will be a cash bar in the Society’s Hall of Fame gallery open until midnight.
On April 22, there will be a Gallery Talk led by curators Denis Kitchen and John Lind.
The Society of Illustrators will be open on Tuesdays from 10:00 AM-8:00 PM, Wednesdays 10:00 AM-5:00 PM, Thursdays 10:00 AM-8:00 PM, Fridays 10:00 AM-5:00 PM, and Saturdays 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM.
TO go along with the exhibition, Kitchen Sink Books an imprint of Dark Horse Books will be offering an oversized hardcover catalogue, Will Eisner The Centennial Celebration. This collection reproduces select pieces from the 2017 exhibitions at the Society of Illustrators. It will also include pieces from Le Musée de la Bande Dessinée (Angoulême). There will also be essays by Denis Kitchen, John Lind, and Paul Gravett.
This collection will 176 pages long and is 10″ x 14″. Text will be in both English and French.
Here’s a little bit of what you can expect:
