B is for Basil, assaulted by bears

I thought I’d mention it because I haven’t seen this exhibition get the buzz that I would have thought a cult-following artist like Gorey would get, there’s only a couple of weeks left to see it and I know there are a great many people who would be kicking themselves if they missed it. From the Brandywine River Museum release:

Uninvited guests, falling masonry and carnivorous plants fill the unique, imaginary world of artist and author Edward Gorey. Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey, an exhibition on view from March 21 through May 17, celebrates this artist and writer, whose masterful pen and ink illustrations and ironic, offbeat humor have brought him critical acclaim and an avid following throughout the world.

Elegant Enigmas, organized by the Brandywine River Museum, is the first traveling exhibition of Gorey’s work, and a long-overdue tribute. The exhibition features approximately 180 original works, many never before exhibited, including selections from The Gashlycrumb Tinies, The Doubtful Guest, The Unstrung Harp, The Gilded Bat, and other well-known publications, drawn primarily from the extensive archives of The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust and significant private collections.

The exhibition is at the Brandywine Museum, which is most famous for having an outstanding Wyeth collection (the three generations of Wyeth artists lived in Chadds Ford; the museum even has Victoria Wyeth giving tours of her relatives’ work).

Although the bucolic Chadds Ford scenery was a great source of inspiration for Andrew Wyeth, it does unfortunately remain pretty inaccessible to anyone without a car (or who just gave up their Philly Carshare membership in the recent brouhaha). Chadds Ford is a 40-minute drive from Center City, and public transit isn’t an option. But if you are a Gorey fan with a car, or are one of those crazy people who shrugs off 30-mile bike rides, you’ve now been duly warned that you have slightly less than two weeks to see the exhibit before it shuffles off the mortal coil.

Brandywine River Museum