The Magic of Eric Carle

The National Museum of Art in Tokyo is dedicating an exhibition to Eric Carle, one of the most influential American authors and illustrators of twentieth-century children's picture books. Born in 1929 and raised in the United States and Germany, Carle is best known for The Very Hungry Caterpillar, published in 1969, one of the world's most popular children's books, translated into dozens of languages ​​and sold millions of copies. His work significantly contributed to redefining the visual language of the picture book, combining narrative simplicity, graphic rigor, and a strong focus on color and texture. The exhibition, titled Eric Carle: Art, Books, and the Caterpillar, presents a broad body of work spanning the artist's entire career. The exhibition includes original illustrations from numerous books, preparatory materials, dummy books, and the hand-painted papers Carle used to create his famous collages. The exhibition highlights the artist's creative process, demonstrating how the final images emerge from a layering of painterly gestures, cuts, and superimpositions. Alongside The Very Hungry Caterpillar, works from titles such as Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me!, and Ten Little Rubber Ducks demonstrate the variety of themes Carle explores and the coherence of his visual language. Animals, natural elements, and life cycles are translated into essential forms, often intended to accompany learning, without sacrificing a strong artistic autonomy. The presence of sketches, proofs, and working materials allows us to understand Carle's work not only as an editorial production, but as a conscious artistic practice, in dialogue with graphic design, painting, and design. The illustrated book emerges as a complex object, in which narrative, image, and visual rhythm are conceived as a unified experience.