Mousterpiece theater podcast3/29/2023 ![]() ![]() An enduring work of art possesses the power to speak to people who perhaps have nothing in common and together speak a hundred different languages. In truth, a masterpiece is the opposite of the posters and photographs adorning the walls of a child’s bedroom. The ability to see and to look deeply is an acquired skill, and this book does little to help foster it. Instead of clarifying the language of art, this book carelessly obfuscates it and argues, in a tone that is reminiscent of ancien-régime aristocrats, that art appreciation is rooted in the primitive satisfactions of ownership and private delectation.Īnother shortcoming is that the book seems directed at children of privilege, and fails to acknowledge that very few kids are sufficiently fortunate to go to sleep every night in a bedroom arrayed with enticing objects. What? A poster is decidedly not a painting, and most any child is capable of understanding the difference between them. Antoine,” in which the English king is depicted on horseback, green draperies fluttering behind him, is described like this: “This picture was a special poster for the king’s bedroom.” “And your room is really a private version of a gallery.” In a typically twisted analysis, Anthony Van Dyck’s radiant canvas “Charles I With M. “Works of art are really just special posters that other people have wanted to put in their rooms,” the author asserts without irony. The book’s thesis maintains that the world’s masterpieces are the upscale equivalent of the posters and photographs with which children decorate their bedrooms. No other book but this one, we are told, can unravel “The Big Question No One Answers (Until Now),” to borrow a chapter heading.Īnd what is this ostensibly essential bit of knowledge? The book announces at the outset that its anonymous author has something to tell us that promises to be all-revealing, and that has long eluded grown-ups. This creates the expectation that “What Adults Don’t Know About Art” will contain at least a few fetching ideas.īut the contents are surprisingly puerile and self-aggrandizing. Indeed, the book is the work of the School of Life, a London-based educational company founded and chaired by Alain de Botton, the well-known essayist and self-styled philosopher. ![]() Oddly, it bears no trace of an author’s identity, as if to suggest that it was composed by a pool of experts pursuing an ideal of objectivity. EVER.”Ī second new art book spanning the centuries, “What Adults Don’t Know About Art,” is aimed at a more mature readership (ages 8 to 12). Leo the cat proves to be a reliable guide to the art of different ages, going back to ancient times, when, as he reminds us, Greek soldiers gave that trick wooden horse to their Trojan foes: “Worst. Illustrated by Jay Daniel Wright, the book is narrated by a chubby cartoon cat named Leo, a hipster in a black jacket and red high-top sneakers. The most worthwhile, I think, is Ben Street’s “How to Be an Art Rebel,” which is geared to junior aesthetes between the ages of 6 and 8. A new crop recently arrived from Britain. Of course, a simpler and less mercenary introduction to art might have been achieved had I purchased a few children’s art books, a genre that has been flourishing for at least a generation. You can’t teach children to feel things, but you can teach them to know things. I could only hope that someday their early expectations of monetary gain would be replaced by an all-around pleasure in contemplating artworks of all kinds and finding the right words to describe what they saw. ![]() It was, to be sure, a risky pedagogical gambit that could have backfired and led the boys to look upon art as a mere get-rich-quick scheme. When we visited museums, I would pay them a dollar each time they correctly guessed the name of an artist without consulting the wall label. Frankly, I was willing to stoop to any level, bribery included, to ensure their cooperation. I dreamed of wandering the rooms of the Met with the boys and having them recognize a Rembrandt or a Rothko or a Georgia O’Keeffe. WHAT ADULTS DON’T KNOW ABOUT ART Written by The School of Life Edited by Alain de BottonĪs an art critic with two sons, I considered it of paramount importance that my children grow up with a knowledge of art. HOW TO BE AN ART REBEL By Ben Street Illustrated by Jay Daniel Wright ![]()
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