Alice drops into Tate Liverpool

We've had Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Gwen Stefani’s journey through the Looking Glass, the Beatles’ ‘I Am The Walrus, not to mention the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland, but now Lewis Carroll’s ubiquitous tale is being celebrated for its influence on fine art and not just popular culture at a large exhibition at Tate Liverpool.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, have fascinated children and adults alike since their publication over 150 years ago. John Tenniel’s illustrations of Alice might seem to be her original rendering, but Carroll’s own drawings on the 1864 manuscript made as a present for ten-year-old Alice Liddell reveal a different vision of the adventurous young heroine.

The exhibition features Carroll’s own sketches as well as Victorian Alice memorabilia and Tenniel’s preliminary drawings. But it also charts the influence the story had on the Surrealist, Pop and Psychedelic art movements. Artists from Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte to Peter Blake and Yayoi Kusama have taken inspiration from Carroll’s children’s story. Modern artists such as Anna Gaskell, Annelies Strba and Torsten Lauschmann have also explored Alice’s journey of awakening for the show.

Alice in Wonderland is at Tate Liverpool, 4 November 2011 – 29 January 2012, www.tate.org.uk/liverpool