Book Review of Meet the Artist: Sophie Taeuber-Arp
The Children’s Book Review
Meet the Artist: Sophie Taeuber-Arp
Written by Lesley Barnes
Illustrated by Zoé Whitley
Ages 5-7 | 32 Pages
Publisher: Tate Publishing | ISBN-13: 978-1849766937
What to expect: Information, Trivia, Culture
The subtitle of this fascinating book is An Art Activity Book—it is certainly that—a book that children can read and learn from, but also a book that will compel them to create. Information about the artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp is seamlessly combined with art activities that will have children creating works inspired by Taeuber-Arp’s methods and aesthetics.
As the book’s opening makes clear, Taueber-Arp was an artist who expressed herself in various forms: “she was an artist, but also a dancer, designer, puppet maker, architect, and editor.” Whitley’s excellent text contextualizes the artist’s work within modern art and modernism in ways children can understand, and Barnes’s illustrations truly bring the text alive.
The activities throughout the book follow perfectly from explanations of Taueber-Arp’s manifold artistic creations and mediums. Students are encouraged and shown how to create puppets in the artist’s style, as well as magazine covers, stained glass windows, patterns, weaves, and much more—all mediums in which the artist excelled. This book came to me with good timing since we had just recently seen the Taueber-Arp retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, so it was great to see how perfectly the book captured the exciting, varied energies of an actual exhibition, too.
Children will love learning about this artist and will engage deeply with what they have learned as they produce creations in Taueber-Arps style along the way.
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Meet the Artist: Sophie Taeuber-Arp by Lesley Barnes was reviewed by Trevor Laurence Jockims. Discover more books like Meet the Artist: Sophie Taeuber-Arp by following along with our reviews and articles tagged with informational books, art, interactive, and culture.
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