Art writing for children

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Elizabeth Rankin looks at some art books to engage young minds

These books are intended for young readers, and demonstrate a lively approach to the different forms that art books for children might take, from simplifying art history to encouraging creativity. All are framed in an accessible way that manages to avoid ‘talking down’ to young readers, and all have excellent colour illustrations throughout.

Earth, Sea, Sun, and Sky: Art in Nature is first and foremost an activity book, but it also offers information and discussion designed to stimulate youthful curiosity. After asking what nature is, it considers some responses to it across the ages, concentrating chiefly on gardens. A number of interesting projects are suggested – some incorporated into the text, some in an activities appendix at the back.

Strictly speaking, there is a greater emphasis on natural history than art, with projects such as documenting the plants making up a sod of turf, growing a miniature garden or creating a fragrant work made with spices. But the second half of the book focuses on Land Art. It was in many ways an inspired choice, as it explores issues around ecology, likely to appeal to readers whether they are interested in art or not,  while introducing such artists as Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt, Andy Goldsworthy and Nils Udo. Apart from raising questions about the natural world, the book expands ideas of what art is, as there are few images from art galleries. Avoiding more conventional artworks does lead to one curious omission though – it seems odd not to mention landscape painting, which surely offers another fruitful way of relating to nature.

Given that the chosen artists employ unusual materials, it becomes doubly important to include the medium (and scale) of each work, which is not done consistently. I would like to know myself what size Aurora Robson’s  Great Indoors  (pp. 74–5) is, and what materials Carlotta Brunetti used for her windborne  Royal Pair  (p. 61) or her golden footprints in the water (p. 67). Omitting materials could also be confusing, for readers might imagine, for example, that Andy Goldsworthy’s composition of real leaves (p. 57) is a photograph or an illusionistic painting. One further quibble relates to some less than perfect English, probably because this is a translation; that would explain occasional oddities of expression, and such mistakes as ‘stationary’ instead of ‘stationery’ (p. 11); game ‘preserves’ instead of ‘reserves’ (p 17).  But all in all, this is a book worth recommending for enterprising children with long summer holidays ahead of them.

I found myself somewhat at a loss to know why some words in Earth, Sea, Sun, and Sky are in larger coloured font. There was no obvious consistency (such as key words or difficult ones to look up) and I concluded they were probably just there to make the text more fun, the colours sometimes relating to a word’s meaning, as in the case of a multicoloured ‘rainbow’. It would have been valuable to add a glossary for less familiar words, whether coloured or not, as is done for the ‘13’ Prestel series, which includes  13 Art Mysteries Children Should Know and  13 Photos Children Should Know.

Possibly because I am an art historian I found the art ‘mysteries’ a little forced. They do not always address art issues as such – where the Old Testament Ark of the Covenant might be, or the appearance of Jesus Christ, for instance. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that they make for good stories that have been the subject of fine paintings, and that can even be related to adventure movies (Raiders of the Lost Ark is cited for the first example!). When the topics are more directly tied to art, there is still a tendency to select more sensationalist anecdotes, exemplified by ‘How Did Caravaggio Die?’

There is a danger that racy tales like these can reinforce stereotypes – whether about the Mona Lisa’s smile or Van Gogh’s ear. I well remember my own son, who had come home with a school project on the Dutch painter, believing that the reason it had been set was because the unfortunate man cut his ear off and later killed himself, not because he was an artist! The same view might be encouraged here as there is less about Van Gogh’s painting than his self mutilation. But there are many nuggets of art information in the essays that might well spark youthful interest (although again this is a translation with occasional unfortunate errors, such as ‘alter’ for ‘altar’ on p. 17).

The book is visually interesting, with not only good images, but also a time line that runs across the title page for each ‘mystery’ – an admirable feature that links the different artists and their works and inserts historical events as well.

This feature works even better for 13 Photos Children Should Know, given that this is restricted to one century, so that more links on the time line are possible. The restricted time frame and the continuity of medium also make for a greater sense of overall coherence. The choice of photographs is quirky enough to be entertaining, while it highlights some of the century’s key events – the first flight over the Atlantic; skyscraper building during the Great Depression; Einstein’s  72^nd birthday; the conquest of Everest; Martin Luther King and the March on Washington; Beatle mania; Aldrin and Armstrong’s moon landing; the wedding kiss of Charles and Diana; the fall of the Berlin Wall; the release of Nelson Mandela; the 9/11 collapse of the twin towers; Beijing’s Olympic opening; the oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico – quite a masterly mix of the popular and the profound.

It is notable that, with the exception of 9/11 and the oil spill, the events generally evince a positive and optimistic outlook (as though a movie wanting to avoid an age restriction), and as might be expected the texts are somewhat sanitised. They are not, however, cloying or sentimental, but presented in a matter-of-fact way that is generally informative and thought provoking – even if they promote a predictably American viewpoint. 13 Photos Children Should Know shares another valuable feature with the previous two publications – suggestions for further exploration of ideas, citing publications, museums and websites.

Reviewing this book in the context of children’s art books is possibly misleading – its strength is rather as a visual introduction to 20^th-century history. But thinking from an art perspective makes one aware of a shortcoming – very little attention is given to how photographs were made, or how photographers create images that provide a particular interpretation of an event. In a sense this is demonstrated by the very nature of the book, but the concept of photography as ‘propaganda’ is purely implicit, when it would have been an interesting idea to pursue.

The final two books relate to art quite differently. Here an artwork is taken as the starting point for the writing of fiction. It is a case of every picture tells a story with a twist, as the narrative is not a reading of the artwork as such.  Journey on a Cloud  is inspired by Marc Chagall, and tells the story of a village postman, whose dreams to visit distant lands are fulfilled when he hitches a ride on a passing cloud. On his travels he falls in love with a beautiful girl whom he brings back to confound the villagers, and fulfil prophesies about reading goats and music-making angels. Chagall’s painting  Bride and Groom with Eiffel Tower  is reproduced on the final pages as a visual conclusion, where alert readers will see elements of the story such as the goat, angels and musical instruments, as well as the two figures happily united. The end papers of the book offer some light-hearted information about Chagall, but this is not an art history book. Indeed the closest link to the artist is the adaptation of the illustrations to a style akin to his, although this is not explicitly mentioned.

The same is true for  The Great Wave,  where the illustrations approximate Japanese woodcuts. The story tells of a childless couple, Taro and Aki, and a child miraculously deposited in the fisherman Taro’s boat after he survived a storm at sea. But the child failed to grow until one day he was taken on an under-sea journey by a fish-dragon, finally returning to be reunited with his parents, and grow. Again the work that was the source of inspiration, in this case Hokusai’s  Great Wave off Kanagawa  from his  Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji,  appears on the final pages, followed by information about the artist, although there is a less obvious relationship with the story line in this case.

The Prestel books approach the idea of getting to know art through diverse strategies, so that discerning parents will surely be able to find a mode to suit their own children when they are looking for ways to introduce them to art.

Earth, Sea, Sun, And Sky: Art In Nature by Barbara Stieff is published by Prestel Verlag 2011. 80 pp. fully illustrated in colour. ISBN 978-3-7913-7048-4

13 Art Mysteries Children Should Know byAngela Wenzel is published by Prestel Verlag 2011. 45pp. fully illustrated in colour.ISBN 978-3-7913-7044-6

 13 Photos Children Should Know by Brad Finger is published by Prestel Verlag 2011. 45pp. fully illustrated in colour.ISBN 978-3-7913-7047-7

Journey on a Cloud by Véronique Massenot and Élise Mansot is published by Prestel Verlag 2011. 28 pp. fully illustrated in colour. ISBN 978-7913-7057-6

The Great Wave by Véronique Massenot and Bruno Pilorget is published by Prestel Verlag 2011. 28 pp. fully illustrated in colour. ISBN 978-3-7913-7058-3