My son enjoys the Art. One of the great advantages of living in the District is the access to museums, free or otherwise. One of his favorite games in the National Gallery's West Building is to take out those information cards they have in most of the galleries and try to match the pictures on the card with the paintings in the gallery, and it's an activity that leads him on to more questions.
It's amazing to me the number of children's books with specific art themes now available. I believe the path to fortune is paved by children's books. Here are a few:
Camille and the Sunflowers: A Story about Vincent van Gogh. The trick of the author, Laurence Anholt, in his series of art books (which also include books on Picasso, Monet, and others) is to center the story on a child who befriends the artist. In the case of Van Gogh, it's Camille, the son of the postman Joseph Roulin in Arles, where Van Gogh lived for a time. The books contain reproductions of the artists' paintings as well.
Another writer who has developed a series of art-themed children's books is James Mayhew, with his Katie series. In these books, Katie visits the art museum and enters the paintings, becoming part of the world created by the artists. Things can get messy, as the art often spills out of the paintings into the gallery, and Katie has to put things back in order. Katie doesn't really meet the artists -- she interacts with the subjects of the paintings.
More whimsical is When Pigasso Met Mootisse by Nina Laden. The story has these two caricatured artists move in next to one another as friends, but gradually foster a bitter rivalry that only ends when they grudgingly accept that both of their artistic styles are worthwhile. The story is humorous and the pictures offer visual lessons about each artist's style. There's even a glossary of sorts at the end to explain some of the subtle humor to the grown-ups.
That barely scratches the surface. The best things about these books is that my son relates his gallery visits to the stories in the books: if he sees a painting from the museum in one of the books, he talks about seeing it in the museum. And vice versa. It's a way of bringing those experiences back in a different context and establishing relations with art that extend beyond a painting on the wall.
9 comments:
That's wonderful. I always liked Linnea in Monet's Garden; don't know if that's still in print.
Once I took my friend's nephew (age 8) to the National Gallery and I was amazed by how interested he was in the art, especially the really abstract stuff. Most adults who aren't very familiar with art usually scoff at that kind of stuff, saying things like, "This isn't art!", but this kid was eating it up. He was making very interesting, introspective comments about the stuff he saw.
Such a good experience.
The funny thing is my son enjoys the Pop Art, esp. Lichtenstein. He also likes the Calder room at the East Building...
He also rocks some cool photoshop glasses and other disguises. V. cute.
GREAT gift ideas for the nephews and The Chef/Master Carpenter's son!! I think we'll be taking his son to the museums this weekend...
Introduce him to the Homer Price series.
Paulo loves you.
~Paulo
What is with this dude Paulo who talks in the third person on everyone's blog?
I think Paulo's trolling for visits to his blog. Seems like an awfully conspicuous way to do it though.
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