Curious George Saves the Day

When I arrived in New York last weekend I told my cousin that there was a museum exhibit I wanted to see. “Let me guess,” she replied drily. “You’re going to the monkey thing.”

Guilty as charged. I trekked uptown to the Jewish Museum at 92nd and Fifth to see “Curious George Saves the Day,” an exhibit about Margret and H.A. Rey and their remarkable adventures, which rivaled those of their most famous literary creation. The Reys were Jewish and fled Nazi-occupied Paris just in the nick of time during WWII. They eventually landed in New York, where their monkey--renamed the more American “George” instead of the French “Fifi,”—made them celebrities. The exhibit was wonderfully whimsical, evoking the spirit of the books themselves starting with the opening arch decorated in the style of the Reys’ illustrations. Midway through the exhibit, children enjoyed a comfy pillow-festooned room where they could curl up and read Curious George books. (I was tempted myself, but thought I might get a few odd looks.)

In the last room a display of hand-illustrated holiday cards from the Reys shows their delight in living in New York over the years, with witty references to circumstances such as gas shortages in the 1970s. But my favorite anecdote was about the couple meeting a young fan at a book signing. He was terribly disappointed in their appearance, telling them, “I thought you were monkeys, too!” In a perfect world they would have been. But theirs was not a very nice world, and the Reys’ triumph is that they took terrible circumstances and turned them into something giving lasting pleasure to generations.

Incidentally, the Jewish Museum is free on Saturdays because employees can’t accept money on Shabbat; special exhibits are open, but the rest of the museum is closed.

Curious George Saves the Day: The Art of Margret and H.A. Rey
March 14, 2010 – August 1, 2010
The Jewish Museum
1109 5th Ave (at 92nd St)
New York, NY
(212) 423-3200
www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/curiousgeorge