Thomas B. Allen
Illustrations for children's books
through March 25

On exhibition in the Fortune Gallery at the University of Mississippi Museum is a show of drawings created for children's books by Thomas B. Allen (1928-2004). Allen was an artist that Steven Heller in "Innovators of American Illustration" describes as "a pioneer of the new impressionistic illustration." Allen was regularly published in Sports Illustrated, Life, New York Times, Esquire, Seventeen, Collier's and other magazines. He did numerous album covers for various artists, including Flatt and Scruggs and Marty Allen.

 

Recently the university acquired Allen's entire body of work for the museum collections, and this exhibition is the first to be organized from the new acquisitions. The exhibition primarily comprises 16 drawings, but also displays four books for which Allen did the illustrations. The books are "Where Children Live" by Thomas B. Allen, "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett, "A Green Horn Blowing" by David F. Birchman and "Going West" by Jean Van Leeuwen. "Where Children Live" by Allen is about youngsters in thirteen different countries.

 

This exhibition highlights Tom Allen's exceptional talent as a draftsman and his love of children. A variety of settings and situations are represented -- children at play, cityscapes, rural views, portraits, and domestic scenes -- all telling a story even without the written word.

 

The Allen works are on exhibition through March 25. The museum is open 9:30-4:30 Tuesday though Saturday, 1:00-4:30 Sunday, and closed on Monday. Admission is free and open to the public with plenty of visitor parking.