The Stories of the Mona Lisa - Piotr Barsony

An Imaginary Museum Tale About the History of Modern Art

Illustrated by the author

Translated from the French by Joanna Oseman

Sky Pony Press, NY: 2012

HC $19.95

56 pages

Goodreads rating: 3.31

My rating: 4/excellent

Endpapers: gray with blurry black 1" dots and plops of colorful paint dots as well

Title Page: all white, but font is in colors and type that look like pastel crayons were used

Illustrations: In the style of many different artists

1^st line: "Dad, will you tell me a story?"

My review on Goodreads:  I was at the Philadelphia Museum of Art today and before leaving, sat on the floor of the (incredible) bookstore checking out the many children's picture books about art and artists.  I loved this one. In it, the artist/author shows the different ways in which different important/famous artists would have painted the Mona Lisa if they'd used their own styles. I do wish that that premise might have been made a little clearer to kids (I knew that Monet, Picasso, vanGogh, Haring, Kandinsky and a dozen or so others had never painted any Mona Lisas, but kids might not understand that).  Otherwise, it was a topnotch book with a great explanation of some of the different art movements in recent(or somewhat recent) history.  I had to buy it. I've already read it twice.

Goodreads review:   This book is about the fascinating history of modern painting through what many consider the most famous work in the history of art: the Mona Lisa by Léonardo De Vinci. Piotr acts as the museum guide for his young daughter throughout the book, taking us on a journey through an imaginary museum. He describes famous art movements and artists, including: impressionism, cubism, expressionism, favism, minimalism, surrealism; Monet, Manet, Cézanne, Picasso, Bacon, Pollock, and more. All of the most famous painters of the modern and contemporary art movements are explained with their own Mona Lisa portraits, in their signature styles.   Throughout the book, Piotr acts as a guide, explaining to his daughter (and the reader) each genre of paintings in a clear, simple, and entertaining way. By the end of the book, we discover that he's actually the artist who's been painting all those Mona Lisa's and the results are spectacular. 

13 Artists Children Should Know - Angela Wenzel

A Prestel Publication
Rating: 5
Published April, 2009
Endpapers: blue, no dust cover
$14.99 at B&N (store)

This is a wonderful model for further research and writing. Each of the thirteen artist pages include famous painting, kid-friendly information and anecdotes about the artist, tips, and further readig suggetions. Also is a "try this" for each! Artists included are:

Leonardo daVinci (the Mona Lisa, Last Supper, and Vitruvian Man)
Jan Vermeer (The Girl with a Pearl Earring)
Claude Monet (many)
Mary Casatt
Vincent VanGogh
Henri Matisse
Pul Klee
Franz Marc
Pablo Picasso
Marc Chagall
Frida Kahlo
Andy Warhol

Any kid that enjoys art, art appreciation, or famous artists would enjoy this book. I want to add Wassily Kandinsky, Keith Haring, and Georgia O'Keeffe. Maybe next year my fourth graders will add to it...hmmm.....

Warhol Live! at the De Young Museum in San Francisco

We arrived in the underground parking garage at the De Young - right beside Golden Gate Park - at the opening hour of 9:30, so we got one of the first parking spots and a relatively uncrowded tour of the exhibit. It was fun to have the audio tour - much of the information was given as informal conversation by people that knew Andy Warhol (1928-1987), and was full of interesting facts. I've been to the Warhol Museum in Pittsburg, and even saw a Warhol at the Belagio a couple of weeks ago in Las Vegas, but I learned a lot about him from this exhibit that I'd never known before. It was really the story of his life. The first thing that greeted us was some of his favorite icons from the silver screen, Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, Elvis... The second was a plexiglass wall of all album covers that he designed - I'm thinking there were 52 in all! The wall was covered with album covers from his own collection. We were treated to excerpts from his favorite music throughout our "excursion." Rollin' Stones, Beatles, Jazz, Dylan, Maria Callas. Pieces of his art, his movies-making, his tv show "15-Minutes of Fame", The Factory (his loft in NYC, completely silver), his magazine "Inter View," and his sponsorship/production of The Velvet Underground. Now this was news to me...I loved the Velvet Underground my last two years in high school. One of the rooms we passed through was a strobe-lit, colorfully psychedelic party room with a big, square red "sofa" in the middle, an invitation for reclining and going back a LOT of years. Fantastic exhibit. I feel lucky to have been able to see it.