Look! Really Smart Art

In the fifth book of her outstanding, award-winning series for children on art, Gillian Wolfe explores all the tricks of the trade that artists use to deceive or trick the eye. The book reproduces paintings and other images which vividly illustrate such effects as tromp l'oeil, simulating movement, eyes following the viewer, surrealism, creating texture, theatrical use of light, multiple viewpoints, colour effects such as pointilism, visual suggestion and many more tricks. Artists represented include Escher, Hockney, Chagall, Pollock, Durer, Seurat, Dali, Van Dyck, Lichtenstein and others, as well as an example of Australian Aboriginal art.

The author's accessible yet highly informative text highlights the techniques used by the artists and effectively communicates her enthusiasm for the art. This makes an ideal introduction to a very wide range of art for readers young and old and draws on the author's great experience of educating children about art.

CONTENTS



Look - the 3D Trick

Look - high speed

Look - near and far

Look - I'm watching you!

Look - as real as it can be

Look - dream on

Look - paint is the picture

Look - does it exist?

Look - getting under the skin

Look - dotty idea

Look - recycled for art

Look - double meaning

Look - every angle

Look - storytelling

Look - by hand or machine?

Look - even computers do it

Look it up

Index

GILLIAN WOLFE CBE is Director of Learning and Public Affairs at Dulwich Picture Gallery, one of the most renowned private collections in the UK. She also works as a freelance consultant, and has lectured all over the world. Her previous art books for children include My First Art Book, winner of the Parent Choice Silver Honour Award, USA; and Art Activity Book and Children's Art Book, both winners of the Gulbenkian Prize for Best Museum Publications of the Year. Her titles with Frances Lincoln include Look! Zoom in on Art (9780711220218), which won the English Association's Award for the best children's non-fiction book, Look! Body Language in Art (9781845071141), Look! Seeing the Light in Art (9781847800381) and Look! Drawing the Line in Art (9781845078249). In 1995, Gillian was awarded an MBE and in 2005 the CBE for services to Arts Education. She lives in South London.

Have you ever watched horses racing? When a horse gallops, its powerful back legs push its body into the air for a huge leap forward. Then its front legs thud down on the ground and its back legs kick off again.

Look closely at these horses. Do you notice anything odd about them?

The horses are doing something impossible. They are flying through the air with all four legs off the ground at the same time. The artist knew perfectly well that a horse cannot possibly do that, so why did he paint it?

He is trying to solve a problem that has always challenged artists: how to show speed of movement. A film camera can do it easily, but when drawing and painting on a flat surface, it is far more difficult.

A spectacular chariot race like this actually happened in Ancient Rome.

You can see it in the film Ben Hur. We don’t mind the artist tricking us, because the effect of the horses furiously pounding towards us is so thrilling.