Chuck Close for Children

     It is somewhat difficult to find children's books about contemporary artists, and the reasons can be varied, although appeal and appropriate subject matter for children can certainly add to the difficulty. Most books for the younger age group are about picture book illustrators. Last year's publication of Face Book by Chuck Close has certainly made a difference in this category, and I hope more artists will follow his lead. I was able to find three books that can be used at home or in classrooms, and that includes Face Book. I've noted them below in order of succeeding complexity.
     Bob Raczka's Here's Looking at Me: How Artists See Themselves has an entry for Close, and I found it to be a very useful introduction.  A two-page spread, one side gives concise information about Close's work and mentions his illness. The other side reproduces Close's "Self-Portrait, 2000." The text could be used (with some explanation of certain words) for children in all grades at the elementary school level. In addition, the rest of this book is excellent, the selection of works is wide-ranging and has excellent appeal for children as well as adults.
     Chuck Close's Face Book deserves every accolade it received: it contains all the elements that make a successful art book for children, including the question-and-answer format, handled here with a light touch that is never pedantic or condescending. This book has something more: one section of the heavy card-stock pages reproduces some of Close's work. Each page is split into three, enabling the reader to move the pages back and forth and experiment with the images of Close's self-portraits over time and in different mediums. While Close's work is daunting for anyone thinking of attempting to work in his manner, my children could not resist the book itself, moving the pages back and forth, amazed at how Close makes his art. This is a wonderful, honest book, and I highly recommend it for readers of any age.
     Chuck Close, Up Close by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan was published in 1998. This is a biography for older children and while the explanatory text is clearly written, and it contains numerous anecdotes from interviews with Close, it does not have the appeal of Close's own book. It would be most useful for older children looking for information for a report, or for adults seeking a more conventional format for instruction. Many of the illustrations are also in Face Book, but I did appreciate the end matter which includes a three-page essay for children explaining what a portrait is, a glossary, a detailed list of figures, a bibliography, and a list of some of the museums in which Close's work can be viewed, although the last two would need to be checked given the age of this text.

Picasso Biographies and Picture Books for Children

(PLEASE NOTE THAT THE LINKS IN THIS POST CURRENTLY DO NOT WORK.)
     In many regards, Picasso is probably much more accessible to young children today than he was to previous generations. His work often reflects a fractured world, a world that is readily recognizable to all of us now that we are conditioned to accept images that reveal a personal perspective that is also universal. That being said, I have found that incorporating Picasso into art instruction (at home) was made easier by an introduction through an I Spy book. In Lucy Micklethwaite's Spot the Dog, she included a reproduction of one of Picasso's Three Musicians paintings, "the one with the dog," as my kids now say. This painting is in MoMA; the other, without the dog, is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The dog made all the difference.  It was as if this one painting was the door through which Picasso's world could be entered.
     As for biographies and picture books, there are not that many recently published and readily available. It quickly became apparent to me that Picasso lived a very adult life, one that will not be easily translated into works for children. I found two picture books about Picasso that are nicely done: Jonah Winter's Just Behave, Pablo Picasso! and Picasso and the Girl With a Ponytail by Laurence Anholt. In Winter's book, the bright, bold illustrations match the simple text as the author relates Picasso's struggles against the art establishment to produce work he believed in. I found this book to be most useful for introducing the idea of periods in the artist's life. A short, single-page essay at the end of the book details Picasso's artistic battles, and a list of the works reproduced by the illustrator references the collections in which these work reside.
     Anholt's book is about Sylvette David (who became an artist) and the summer she sat for Picasso. The storyline is that of the young girl's growing friendship with Picasso, the revelation of why she appears to be so sad, and the gift that makes for her eventual happiness. This picture book can be used for its story alone as the main character is Sylvette, not the artist. I found this book to be very accessible for young children, but of value to anyone looking for a simple treatment in story form of Picasso's creative process. A few paragraphs at the end of the book, along with a photograph of one of the sittings (which I particularly liked) details the history behind this gentle and appealing story.
     Biographies for older children include Mike Venezia's Picasso from the "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists" series.  This clear and simple treatment of Picasso's life (for any age, except the youngest) includes comics along with pages of photographs from Picasso's life and art, interjecting humorous notes that make the text more appealing for younger readers.  Kate Scarborough's Pablo Picasso (in the series, "Artists in Their Time"), a biography for older children, includes a timeline that runs along the bottom of the pages of text and photographs and reproductions of artworks.  This is a great book to use on its own for anyone, including an adult, who is seeking a well-written, detailed chronicle of Picasso's life and work.
     And finally, I include a book that is more difficult to classify, Antony Penrose's The Boy Who Bit Picasso.  This is more of an illustrated essay than a biography, and the emphasis is upon Penrose's own relationship, as a child, with Picasso.  The son of Lee Miller (whose photographs illustrate the book) and Roland Penrose, Penrose was in a unique position, getting to know Picasso as a friend of his parents.  The biting story is only a small part of this book and is not really the focus of the narration.  The text is charming (although I think older children might not care for it), and I particularly enjoyed the way Penrose incorporated discussion of some of Picasso's work into it.  This would be a nice addition to more linear looks at Picasso's life.