WATER TOWER PLACE — Tucked neatly in Water Tower Place is a store for both kids and those who remember being one.
The Art of Dr. Seuss gallery will host a belated Dr. Seuss "birthday party" from 1-4 p.m. Sunday at the Mag Mile vertical mall, 835 N. Michigan Ave. The "Cat in the Hat" will make an appearance, and guests will be able to play Seuss-themed games and enter a raffle.
Art by Dr. Seuss, born Theodor Geisel, makes up one of the most popular catalogs on Earth, said Gallery Director Gene DeFillippo. Yet the cozy second-floor store at Water Tower Place is just one of four standalone Seuss galleries in the world.
The store doesn't sell Seuss originals, but rather "limited-edition reproductions" made by Giclée printing. The number of such reproductions for sale is truly that: limited. And Seuss's widow, Audrey Geisel, controls most of the originals, DeFillippo said.
There are about 85 Seuss pieces on display at any given time in the store, ranging from $39 for a letter out of Seuss' alphabet book letters to $20,000 for big unframed paintings.
The gallery includes pieces inspired by Seuss' popular children's' books, but also work he did throughout his entire life. Among those: Seuss's "Abduction of the Sabine Woman" that he painted for the Dartmouth Club in New York, and many of his "midnight paintings" influenced by contemporaries including Jackson Pollock and Frank Stella.
"You could spend all the time in the world learning about Dr. Seuss," DeFillippo said. "The books are only a small part of his story."
Before he was Dr. Seuss, Geisel got his start drawing advertisements for corporations and cartoons for humor magazines. He wrote and drew his first book in 1937, but didn't gain fame until "Cat in the Hat" was published 20 years later, in 1957.
"That's the reason he was able to write: He had a day job," DeFillippo said.
DeFillippo said sales at the store are "fluid," so he doesn't get too attached to any one piece. But the multiple generations of guests who visit the store and often remember what made them learn, or learn to love, reading get "emotional," he said.
The store, which opened last year, receives between six and eight new pieces annually, DeFillippo said. The store is hosting an anniversary party in June, about a month before a newly-discovered Seuss manuscript, "What Pet Should I Get," is published in July.
Until then, the gallery will have its hands full with the crowd for its namesake's own birthday this month.
"'The Cat draws a crowd," DeFillippo said.
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