Animals in Art

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

On the theory that youngsters gravitate towards images of other children, Richmond introduces readers to fine art in a gallery tour of 38 paintings by Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Degas, Whistler and others, all featuring young subjects. Herself an artist, Richmond is a friendly, undemanding guide whose discourses on style and iconography, children's changing social roles and artists' lives often get bogged down in personal opinions that are vague, obvious or objectionable: Matisse ``really could use color like no one else''; one can tell by looking that Berthe Morisot's pictures were painted by a woman. The rambling text further diminishes the relatively small illustrations, and the thematic chapter groupings intended to shape the material are of little use. Richmond might have given more thought to the wise counsel from her own introduction that ``art is not about words, but about looking .'' Indeed, her straightforward descriptions of abstract works by Picasso and Matisse finally allow the inquisitive reader some room for discovery. Ages 7-10. (Oct.)

School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up-Odd bits and pieces of fact (``In Japan, the carp symbolizes strength and perseverance'') and opinion (``Maria-Sybilla Merian was the most famous female painter of natural history subjects in the 17th century'') are laced together in invitingly accessible prose. There are 34 artifacts, from an ancient Lascaux cave painting to a 19th-century Tlingit button blanket to Picasso's Guernica, organized in five rather arbitrary and not particularly useful sections, e.g., ``Animals as Symbols,'' ``Storytelling,'' ``Making Pictures.'' Richmond's personal reactions and biases are sometimes presumptuous in expressing the intentions of an artist when it's only her belief. These short descriptions with idiosyncratically chosen information and commentary are joined by rather small reproductions of the objects; often readers are given only a detail of a larger work. Because these reproductions are small, they tend to act as illustrations for the words rather than the other way around. Dark areas become murky and nuances of drawing or color relationships are grossly diminished. Yet, the range of places, times, and mediums and the casual attractiveness of the storytelling helps demystify an art world too often made holier than thou.-Kenneth Marantz, Art Education Department, Ohio State University, Columbus

Carolyn Phelan

With good reproductions of paintings and a breezy, conversational text, this book introduces children to art through pictures with children as subjects. Although the dust jacket blurb begins, "Fine art reproductions from all time periods and places . . . ," in fact the art comes mainly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in North America and Europe, with a few forays back in time through the European tradition and the inclusion of a Chinese scroll and an Egyptian mummy portrait. Richmond comments on each painting in a few paragraphs, including information about how the artist's life and society are reflected in the artwork. The use of the first person is unusual and the personal remarks sometimes seem out of place, but they give the text an informal air; in any case, they are balanced with sound commentary on the artwork under consideration. A good resource for "picture persons" in the schools.