Product Description

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to live next door to a world-renowned artist? Here, neighbors of such celebrities as Michelangelo and Picasso, Beethoven, Brahms, and Chopin, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Poe, and Dickens offer you the inside scoop on the people next door. 2 cassettes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3099050 in Books
• Published on: 1996-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio Cassette

From School Library Journal
Grade 6 Up?This unabridged recording of the book by Kathleen Krull (Harcourt, 1995) is read by John C. Brown and Melissa Hughes. There are biographies of 20 artists from a variety of nations and schools, but the majority are Western European or American. Those included are Michelangelo, DaVinci, Bruegel, Anguissola, Rembrandt, Hokusai, Cassatt, Van Gogh, Kollwitz, Matisse, Picasso, Chagall, Duchamp, O'Keeffe, Johnson, Dali, Noguchi, Rivera, Kahlo, and Warhohl. The mini-biographies, about six minutes each, cover traditional information about the artists and their works as well as unusual gossipy tidbits about the artists' personalities. Each section concludes with a list of art works. The narration is clear and interesting. Art teachers could use the tapes to introduce the artists, possibly supplemented with visuals of their works. The tape could also be used in part as a teaser for further research or to promote reading of the book.?Sue Davis, Cedar Falls High School, IA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 4^-6. From the eclectic series that began with Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neighbors Thought) (1993) comes a volume devoted to visual artists. The subject seems well suited to Krull's format: informative short biographies that focus on the subjects' personal lives and eccentricities rather than chronologies of their masterpieces. A few notes on major artworks follow each biography. Among the 19 artists discussed are Leonardo, Bruegel, Cassatt, Van Gogh, Picasso, O'Keefe, Dali, Noguchi, Rivera, Kahlo, and Warhol. Each chapter begins with one of Hewitt's distinctive portrait paintings, handsome caricatures of the artists and a few significant or distinctive objects indicating their interests and individual traits. A lively, entertaining presentation. Carolyn Phelan

Review
Although billed by its publishers for ages 8 to 12, this compendium of background and gossip (that Vasari never would have dared to write) is vastly entertaining for adults, too. Not only do we get the sexual preferences of such greats as da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Mary Cassatt, we even learn what they ate and the pets they loved or despised. We also learn that Hokusai changed his residence no less than 93 times (so he wouldn't have to clean his messy studios), and that Van Gogh's paintings were used to patch up outhouses and chicken coops. Who wouldn't love browsing through such fascinating stuff? Along the way, a lot of standard information is also exchanged. Hewitt's individual portraits are humorous and evocative of each artist's style. Great fun. (Children's Literature )

Customer Reviews

An interesting cross selection of artists
"It's not what an artist does that counts, but what he is" - Picasso, p. 56

The book contains 16 Chapters on the following 17 artists in birth year order: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), Peter Bruegel (1525?-1569), Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625), Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Mary Cassatt (1845-1926), Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945), Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Marc Chagall (1887-1985), Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), William H. Johnson (1901-1970), Salvador Dali (1904-1989), Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), Diego Rivera (1886-1957) & Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Andy Warhol (1928-1987).

It contains a variety of gossipy tidbits about the artists' lives. The cross selection of artists is an interesting combination. Krull introduced me to three artists of which I was not familiar (Anguissola, Kollwitz and Johnson). As a result Krull has whet my appetite and I will now seek out further information. Hewett"s illustrations are entertainly and cleverly done. I am especially particular to her rendition of Hokusai (he is wearing a kimino with both "The Wave" and "Mt. Fuji" on it).

I'm not convinced that the book is intended for young readers (ages 9-12). The gossip is on occasion adult in content. No actual prints of any of the artist's paintings are included, which was a surprise given the high cost of the book. This proves cruelly aggravating given that Krull references select paintings with accompanying notes.

Additional tidbits missing from the book: Dali did the dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcock's "Spellbound" starring Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman. Chagall's "The Dead Man" was the inspiration for the title of the Broadway play "Fiddler on the roof." Rivera caused a scandal when he painted the portrait of Lenin in a Rockefeller Center mural in '33. In addition, he used his clout to enable Leon Trotsky to live in Mexico. Two years later Kahlo introduced Trotsky to her friend, a Stalinist agent, who killed him with an ice-axe.

Art book without art
I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed it because it puts some of the humanity back into a subject many of whose personalities have been so lionized that they have become icons, non-people. However, I'm not certain to whom I might recommend it.

To begin with, the book has the direct, simple style of books written for children, grades 4-8. The language is a little too complex for those under age 8, the style a little too simple for those over age 13. Since I occasionally read children's books anyway, this did not stop me as an adult from reading the book and taking satisfaction from doing so. Nor would I have had any problem with recommending the volume for a school or public library, except....

I enjoyed the book primarily because I had already had a rather extensive exposure to art of all types through my mother, who was a working artist herself. Our house was littered with books about artists and their art works, and I started visiting museums in her company from the age of six. When Lives of the Artists: Masterpieces, Messes (and What the Neighbors Thought) discussed Rembrandt, I already possessed a pretty clear impression of his style and of some of his more famous works. The possibility that the he did not paint Man with a Golden Helmet surprised me, because I have a very clear picture of the work-one of my favorite Rembrandts-in my head. Someone who didn't would find it difficult to care; it would be just another bit of free-floating information.

In short, the book fails to fulfill a goal as a vehicle of teaching young people-or any people-about art because there are no illustrations of it. While there are entertaining anecdotes about a nice selection of famous people who perform a variety of styles of art, they might be anyone with eccentric behavior.

I'm not certain where the fault for this glaring defect lies. Perhaps it arises from an attempt to produce an interesting and attractive book that is still affordable, especially for children. Perhaps it was a matter of inability to procure a right to reproduce a work of art belonging to someone who has exclusive rights over it. Still, I find it difficult to believe that the museums of the world would be unwilling for their masterpieces to be represented in a book on famous art, especially for children, if only because it represents free publicity for their establishment. Certainly if any given museum is unwilling, there are other works of art from which to choose: therein lies a certain degree of leverage.

Whatever the reason for the lack of art in an art book, I can only suggest this book to schools that provide a thorough grounding in the subject. An art teacher might give lectures on periods of art, their characteristic works and personalities, and suggest that this book might be fun to read. For a young person who has been prepared, this might return "great" art once again to the realm of human endeavor.

NOT For Children Only!!!
What a sin that this marvelous series is positioned as "children's literature." As a 40-year-old lifetime student of art, I stumbled across this title in a gift shop. It brings life and personality to artists that surpasses any biography I've read. *Anyone* who is interested in art would love this charming, insightful, and delightfully anecodotal work. I immediately went to Amazon.com and bought the other two in the series. I told myself that I would give them as gifts, but I can't part with them. Enjoy!