Charles Addams Family and Friends

Ghoulish, macabre, demonic, depraved, bizarre, eerie and weird have all been used to describe the work of Charles Addams. Adorable, sweet, charming, humorous, enchanting, tender and captivating are also adjectives used to describe the same body of work, as well as the man himself. His rare gift was the ability to enjoin such dichotomies in wonderfully crafted cartoons and drawings loved by millions worldwide.

Charles Addams is most widely known for the creation of The Addams Family, characters that formed the basis of the TV show which first appeared in 1964. Now famous, Morticia, Fester, Gomez, Wednesday, Pugsley Grandmama, Lurch and Thing existed as various forms and aspects in Addams’ cartoons prior to the sitcom. It was in working with the idea a television production that Addams coalesced a motley group of unnamed characters into the specific personages he then collectively called The Addams Family. This exhibition explored the The Addams characters which appeared in only about 150 Addams original works.