Nelson’s 16 oil paintings are presented in sequential order in The Carle’s Central Gallery.

You can imagine our excitement when The Undefeated was then awarded the top artistic medals in the field one year later.” “We had exhibited Kadir Nelson’s paintings from We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball in 2012, and knew firsthand how magnificent his paintings are in person. “We committed to this exhibition in 2019,” says Ellen Keiter, chief curator at The Carle.

The book concludes with a radiant image of smiling children. With each turn of the page, Nelson’s figures emerge from the shadows of the past. He makes connections between the racist killings of yesterday-the four girls murdered in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing of 1963-to the police killings of today, represented by a community street memorial. He paints figures from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement, and the countless African American activists, artists, athletes, musicians, and writers whose contributions have been instrumental in forming American culture.Īgainst stark white backgrounds, Nelson’s paintings transport readers across generations. Nelson portrays American heroes, past and present, alongside individuals whose names may be lost to history but whose efforts in the fight for human equality live on. The Undefeated powerfully unites Nelson’s illustrations with Alexander’s poem about courage and perseverance. The exhibition will be on view November 20, 2021-April 3, 2022. Artist Kadir Nelson won the 2020 Caldecott Medal and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for his realist paintings, and author Kwame Alexander received a Newbery Honor for the text. The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art is proud to announce the opening of The Undefeated: An Exhibition of Original Paintings by Kadir Nelson, with artworks from one of the most decorated picture books of the 21st century.

The undefeated picture book