Take a Look: An Introduction to the Experience of Art

A user-friendly guide invites young readers to see, make, and experience a wide variety of art forms, from a shaman's mask to Picasso's Guernica, and includes a glossary, timeline, suggested readings, and more than two hundred illustrations.

Grade 6 Up-Davidson comments on 200 or so reproduced objects, making mainline observations in simple if less than lively language. Information about the pieces and/or their creators dominate the brief text and ample captions. She structures her episodic approach around the question "What's Art For?" and examines functions such as "Telling a Story," "Decoration," "Magic," etc. There are also chapters on "Learning the Language of Art" and "Artists Earning Their Living." The emphasis is always on getting readers to go beyond looking in order to "see," i.e., to create personal meaning from the process of observing. The author chooses effective examples from many cultures and times to compare and to point out some underlying common traits, as well as multiple variations on certain themes. Unfortunately, the pages are too densely packed-there are no places for the eyes to rest, no visual invitation to linger. And too often the pictures are treated, due to their small size and cramped positions, as subordinate to the words. Further, there's a puzzling overbearing redness to the color reproductions that clouds their aesthetic qualities. A selective timeline of the same European history that predominates the chapters is a useful supplement.
Kenneth Marantz, Art Education Department, Ohio State University, Columbus
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Any art-appreciation book that embraces a Tintin comic strip and an Indian automaton tiger eating a British soldier and shows them deference equal to that paid masterpieces by Picasso, Durer and Michelangelo is a rare find. But Davidson is a rare guide. In addition to exploring technique, style, social history and iconography of decorative as well as fine art, she addresses less obvious matters, like body language and how artists support themselves. Her astute commentary leaves plenty of room for the reader's own reactions, and the visual and emotional variety and arrangement of images is entrancing. Women--as artists, artisans and subjects--are included at every turn, as are cultural milieus ranging from the Medici court to an Afghani yurt. Its very inclusiveness makes this a formidable book, but also a vastly rewarding one. Unfortunately, the design is flat and pages seem crowded, while muddied reproductions diminish the impact of the featured works. A timeline, glossary and bibliography are included. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In lucid detail that will be easily comprehended by middle- grade children and novices of all ages, a survey of art's styles, techniques, and symbols through the ages; the social, economic, and philosophical reasons underlying them; and how viewers' experiences affect their response to art. Davidson (a gallery owner and former director of Cambridge University Press's educational publishing division) begins with a brisk discussion of this relationship, bringing in diagrams (including one viewer's eye movements over a painting), a Quentin Blake illustration, and numerous other works of art to illuminate her points. Covering such subjects as ``What's Art For?'', storytelling in art, the revelations of ``Body Language,'' the human yen to decorate, and more, she combines an intelligent, abundantly informed text with a wealth of well chosen illustrations (including several by children); lengthy captions capably supplement the text. (In fact, Davidson's well-organized, logical sequence is an excellent demonstration of how the Eyewitness series' technique of scattershot, loosely related facts frequently falls short.) The color reproduction, occasionally, seems amiss, and there is a lamentable lack of full citations, although the author often mentions dimensions, owners, etc. Nonetheless, a splendidly inviting, comprehensive, and rewarding introduction. Brief but select list for ``Further Reading''; index. (Nonfiction. 10+) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 5-9. This abundantly illustrated, oversize volume will make a nice adjunct to the art curriculum precisely because it skims the surface of its subject. In 11 topical chapters, chockablock with drawings, photographs, and reproductions that represent many cultures and historical periods, Davidson considers everything from artistic interpretations of the human form and face to materials used in making art and how artists do their work. Nothing is pursued in much depth, but the author instills her text with a strong sense of how art fits into everyday experience and how we use it--to express ourselves, tell stories, decorate our houses and our bodies, have fun, manifest religious faith, and even earn a living. A time line, a glossary, and a list of further readings are appended. Stephanie Zvirin