Dr. Seuss is known foremost for his famous cartoon style and rhyming children’s books which hold extremely unique character designs and landscapes that are completely his own. Growing up his work was nearly impossible to ignore, and still is, even as I grow older. I have witnessed his works being turned into feature length films created after his death, as well as whole theme parks centered around these ‘Seuss-ian’ creations.
However, what most people don’t know is that Dr. Seuss or Theodor Seuss Geisel also completed a number of paintings during sleepless nights called ‘The midnight paintings’. These surrealist paintings were kept hidden from the world and kept private until his passing in 1991.
These paintings seemed to erupt something within me, something that was sleeping, something that had been bugging me for weeks. This something was the sense of surrealism that I had been looking for, it’s the beautifulness of the surrealism that makes the image appear so deliciously new.
Even though many of the aspects of his cartoons come from real life, he still found a way to make them so incredibly unique. For example, Dr. Seuss used to be into Taxidermy, with something he used to call ‘unorthodox taxidermy’. He would often receive things like antlers from dead animals which his father would supply him with from his profession at the Springfield zoo. Using these parts, he would combine them with paper mâché and paint over then to create all new kinds of animals.
Though throughout all of Dr. Seuss’s works, I find his midnight painting the most interesting. I adore just how different they are from his other works, as if this artwork is his real-self and the work that he shows the world is just a persona.
These painting range in a lot of areas, for example one called ‘Cat detective in the wrong part of town’ is bright and intrinsic and resembles that of many cubist works. Yet it still hold that Seussian style that is so beloved and matchless.
However I am captivated more by the darker paintings, one of these in particular is called ‘Cat in Obsolete shower bath’. This small piece is extremely textured with its brush strokes, creating the idea that the room itself is dirty. This idea is couples by the color choice, the green shower curtain is reminiscent of mold and the dark background mixed with green splotches creates a very gloomy atmosphere. It is speculated that this painting represents Geisel’s time in tiny, gloomy apartments and that these cats are his ultra-ego.
Geisel also explored the idea of balance, where a painting holds two opposing emotions, an example of this is his painting ‘The great cat continuum’. This work hold both the emotions of hopefulness and despondency as we watch an exhausted cat walk through a never ending tunnel of windows leading to who knows where. Although the windows are bright and all different shapes and the cat moves continually, not giving up hope.
There is also a few paintings in the midnight paintings that are called the ‘Deco period’ my favorite of these paintings called ‘Pink-tufted small beast, night’. This painting shows golden nonsense architecture before black backgrounds resembling some type of dystopian city. These abandoned buildings being outlandish and illogical are what makes these paintings incredible to view, as well the creatures that seem to live there. Which suggests that maybe these are the animals that have taken over, there are no windows or roof but yet they still sit there in peace. I love this affect, the sense of bliss and abandonment, these animals sitting in the middle of the image are lonely, but yet at the same time free.
This sense of tranquility and isolation is extremely inspiring, I want more than anything to create this same affect in my own work.
I'm afraid that I will even go as far as to re-create some of these paintings in the future and explore the process of making such eccentrically strange but freeing artwork.
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