Now available in a new edition, this colorful, lively, and endlessly
entertaining book for children looks at artistic illusion, showing that
art history is rife with tricksters. If seeing is believing, then
artists might be the biggest liars of all. Painters, sculptors and
photographers often try to convince their audiences that the paint is
wet; the fruit is real; the window is open; the figure's eyes are
following you around the room. This fun and informative book takes young
readers on a thematic tour of art as illusion. From the Parthenon
through examples from nearly every major movement and culture, vibrant
works of art are revealed to contain visual tricks, puns, hidden clues
and just plain deceit. Seurat's pointillism, da Vinci's mysterious Mona
Lisa, Magritte's playful paintings-within-paintings, Duane Hanson's
eerily realistic statues are all explored in detail to discuss the
techniques, styles, use of perspective, and composition that implore us
to look at them again and again. Filled with ideas for do-it-yourself
optical projects, each chapter focuses on a theme such as color, hidden
pictures, and surrealism. Designed with the curious eye in mind, this
book will introduce young readers to beguiling works of art with fresh
insight and a new way of appreciating some of the world's most important
works of art.