Portrait of the Artist as a Child
‘The Noisy Paint Box,’ by Barb Rosenstock, and More
Why
is it that little children, who romp gleefully though museum halls in
their preschool years, grow into kids who would rather do anything than
walk through an exhibition? If only they knew how much they have in
common with the men and women who made the work on the gallery walls,
rebels all. Three new books, one each on Vasily Kandinsky, Alexander
Calder and Pablo Picasso, present the artists in imaginative and
appealing ways that should leave adults surprised by what they learn and
children feeling they’ve encountered brilliant kindred spirits.
In
“The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract
Art,” by Barb Rosenstock with illustrations by Mary GrandPré,
Kandinsky’s Russian parents stress conformity. Young Vasya, with his big
head and protruding ears, is bored and dutiful in his studies of math,
science, history and piano. As he sits through formal dinners or spends
hour after hour over his books, his eyes practically roll back in his
head as he struggles to stay awake.
Vasya
looks a little familiar. Painted by GrandPré, illustrator of the
original American editions of “Harry Potter,” this dark-haired boy with
an interesting pallor wields his paintbrush like a wand. Lacking Harry’s
lightning-bolt scar, he’s nonetheless marked by a mixed blessing: To
him, colors are “noisy.” In an author’s note, Rosenstock writes that
Kandinsky, who recalled hearing a hissing sound when he first mixed
colors together, is thought to have experienced synesthesia.
As
Rosenstock puts it, his paint box — a fortuitous gift from a kind aunt —
“trilled like an orchestra tuning up for a magical symphony.”
GrandPré employs muted purples and blues to depict Vasya’s dull
childhood world. Once he starts painting, the pages come alive with
bright swirls of color that fly around his head like strands of melody.
Eventually, Kandinsky abandons his career in law, studies painting and,
frustrated with the limitations of figurative work, grows “brave enough”
to create “something entirely new — abstract art.”
Children
who enjoy “The Noisy Paint Box” might want to see Kandinsky’s paintings
in person. In New York City, the Neue Galerie’s temporary Kandinsky
exhibition is on view through Feb. 10 (only children 12 and older are
allowed entry), but Rosenstock notes that both the Guggenheim and the
Museum of Modern Art hold many of his works in their permanent
collections. Even those who aren’t inspired to visit a museum will take
away the lesson of Kandinsky’s life: Listen to what excites you and
follow its call.
For
children ready to learn about artists’ lives and work in greater
detail, Princeton Architectural Press begins publishing its “Meet the
Artist!” series in February. The first books in the series introduce
young readers to the work of Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso. Both
books, written and illustrated by Patricia Geis, are vibrantly colored
and interactive, with cutouts, pop-ups, sliding tabs and opportunities
to explore and mimic some of the methods the artists employed.
Calder’s
fascination with toys, mobiles and what he called “stabiles” —
essentially rigid sheet-metal sculptures — makes his work well suited to
a young audience, and to the paper engineering of pop-ups. The book
includes a delicate pop-up circus with cutout figures readers can use to
stage their own performances; an ingenious metal chain, attached to the
book at the top and bottom of a page, that can be shaped in the mode of
Calder’s wire sculpture of Josephine Baker; and a three-dimensional
model of “Saurien,” a red stabile Calder created in 1975, which stands
at Madison Avenue and 57th Street.
Picasso
— who according to Geis once said, “What the great artists struggle to
reach, the child creates naturally” — is, like Calder, an artist whose
work immediately appeals to children, and the author makes the most of
her subject. Among the interactive elements she incorporates are pages
with flaps that reveal astonishingly precocious paintings made by
Picasso at the tender ages of 7, 14, 15, 16 and 17. Somehow the act of
flipping the pages introduces an element of drama, surprise and fun to
viewing the works. Children can also try on a primitive mask, compare
the paintings of Braque and Picasso in tiny booklets, pluck the strings
of a three-dimensional guitar and gaze at themselves in a folded
cardboard mirror — to see things the Cubist way, from multiple
perspectives.
THE NOISY PAINT BOX
The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art
By Barb Rosenstock
Illustrated by Mary GrandPré
40 pp. Alfred A. Knopf. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 4 and up)
ALEXANDER CALDER: MEET THE ARTIST!
Written and illustrated by Patricia Geis
18 pp. Princeton Architectural Press. $24.95. (Pop-up book; ages 8 and up)
PABLO PICASSO: MEET THE ARTIST!
Written and illustrated by Patricia Geis
18 pp. Princeton Architectural Press. $24.95. (Pop-up book; ages 8 and up)