| Details | | Publication Date: | 1996-05-01 | | Series: | A Closer Look Activity Book | | Edition Description: | Illustrated |
| Size | | Length: | 46 pages | | Height: | 10.5 in | | Width: | 9.0 in | | Thickness: | 0.2 in | | Weight: | 15.2 oz |
Publisher's Note
Take a closer look at the American scene through the eyes of an extremely talented artist.
Page after page of beautiful, original artwork fills the mind with portraits, trials, and tribulations of American life from the early 1900s to the present day. Visualize the struggles of African-Americans--and of the United States as a whole--from the days of slavery to celebrations of today. Included are different types of activities for exploring paintings that will spark creativity and imagination.
48 pages, 100 color illus., 31 b/w illus., 8 1/2 x 10.
Industry Reviews
Howard's tribute to Jacob Lawrence (see Toussaint L'Ouverture, reviewed above) takes on the artist's personal history, the intricacies of his "collage cubist" style, the lives of four black heroes and the reader's own creative imagination all at once. As the stories of Toussaint L'Ouverture, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and John Brown as well as the artist's own life unfold in excerpts from Lawrence's series of paintings, exercises help the reader understand the artist's use of symbolism, composition and abstraction. Simple activities urge readers to experience the paintings through movement ("You can see how the artist creates a dramatic mood by posing your body in the same positions as Harriet [Tubman]'s body") or through the creation of their own images and stories. Driven by the multiple imperatives of history, art history and biography, the busy layout eventually becomes visually exhausting. The final, unillustrated biographical note fills in material that is elsewhere covered in fragments. While the mishmash of text, captions, biographical quotes and exercises is intended to help readers see the art, the eclectic format leaves little opportunity for quiet contemplation. Ages 8-up. (Oct.)
Lopate
This volume in the Closer Look Activity Book series will get the most use in the classroom. The design is too crowded, with full-color reproductions of many paintings, as well as factual information, quotes from the artist, suggested follow-up activities, and questions about subject, medium, and technique. However, the reproductions are of good quality and the questions do make you look closely. . . . A final essay discusses the artist and his work, and there are brief notes on the pictures. This is a good general overview to use with those art books that focus on just one of Lawrence's narrative series, such as The Great Migration (1993) and Harriet Tubman and the Promised Land (1993).
Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company.
Rochman
Children of various ages and experience in art will find this book interesting and challenging. It probably would be helpful to have an adult's guidance, at least on first reading, as the pages are so full of information. Pictured in full color are Lawrence's Migration series, Harlem street and library scenes, and works about Toussaint L'Ouverture, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, and Harriet Tubman. Along the way children will learn a good deal about these historical figures, the use of paint, and composition to create a work of art expressive of an idea or emotion.
Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company.
Gubert
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