Children's Wallpaper Art
Currently on view at the Cooper Hewitt is a show on children's wallpaper.
Above: “Popeye with the Hag of the Seven Seas;” by Elzie Crisler Segar
The show presents wallpaper from the 1800s to the 1990s and related items of influence such as children's characters in books and cartoons. Some very cute stuff. One of my favorites conceptually is a wallpaper of blank squares so kids can fill in their own images or paste in pictures — very inventive. The Cooper Hewitt is a small museum in a gracious upper east side mansion so it's always nice to visit; they are working on an ambitious interior expansion now too, which will allow exhibits of much larger items such as automobiles.