When the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library opens in the late author's hometown of Indianapolis on January 29, visitors will be able to discover not only the Smith Corona typewriter he used in writing his many novels (and the multiple rejection notices he received from magazines over his long career), but also drawings and silkscreens from his lesser-known sideline as an artist. The light-hearted, often comical artworks are the product of
Vonnegut's lifelong habit of doodling as a break from writing — a creative outlet that the author began to take more seriously in the 1970s, penning illustrations for his novels and, over time, exhibiting in galleries in Denver, Northampton, Massachusetts, the Hamptons, and New York.

It's fitting that the writer, who died at 84 in 2007, first used books as his canvas. The felt-pen drawings in "Breakfast of Champions" (1973) were more than simple illustrations, adding a cheekily wondrous pictorial element to the novel's exploration of American culture through images of flags, a flamingo, an anus, a vulva, guns, hamburgers, and an electric chair.
However, the majority of works in the library's collection are not taken from the pages of Vonnegut's novels but are silkscreens, an art form that he began exploring through collaborations with Kentucky-based artist Joe Petro III in 1993.

Petro told ARTINFO that over the years he silkscreened over 400 of Vonnegut's images, which the writer created with an eye to such influences as Paul Klee, Mondrian, Saul Steinberg (who was a friend), and James Rosenquist. Vonnegut's simply sketched figures show a cartooning impulse, and the influence of Klee can be seen in his use of line and color and the expressive, playful tenor of his drawings. Petro — who today sells prints of the author's work online — says he considers himself "one of the luckiest people in the world" to have been able to work with Vonnegut, remembering him as both "hilarious" and "one of the most intelligent men I've ever known."

Fans of Vonnegut's writing who plan on making the pilgrimage to Indianapolis will be happy to learn that many of his artworks are inspired by his fiction. Some drawings contain text, like "Goodbye Blue Monday," which references the subtitle of "Breakfast of Champions." Another literary connection can be found in references to the character Kilgore Trout, the fictional science-fiction writer who appears in many of Vonnegut's novels. He did a drawing of Trout's tomb, as well as a portrait of Trout with an assortment of blue and green eyes perched above a long, angular nose. There is also a humorous, Klee-inspired portrait of a Tralfamadorian, one of the green aliens from "Breakfast of Champions."

According to its Web site, the mission of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library is to be "a cultural and educational resource facility, museum, art gallery, and reading room." The local law firm Katz & Korin has provided the library with a space in its historic building that was formerly leased to the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, which outgrew it in 2009. Although Vonnegut lived most of his life on the East Coast — becoming a beloved celebrity sighting in the Hamptons, where he summered — he remained true to his Indianapolis roots. "All my jokes are Indianapolis," he said in a speech in the Midwestern city in 1986. "All my attitudes are Indianapolis. My adenoids are Indianapolis. If I ever severed myself from Indianapolis, I would be out of business. What people like about me is Indianapolis."

View Slideshow: With Humor and Hints of Klee, Kurt Vonnegut's Artworks Charm at His New Indianapolis Museum