Customer Reviews

The Blue Rider: The Yellow Cow Sees the World in Blue (Adventures in Art)

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What better way to introduce children to art than through the paintings of The Blue Riders, a group of painters that included Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. The exciting story of these painters is illustrated with their bright and glorious paintings and photographs of the artists at work and play. Paintings are broken down into smaller pictures to help the reader understand recurrent themes and to pull one into the detail of each painting. Also included is an enchanting collection of hand-painted postcards from Franz Marc to Kandinsky with excerpts from his messages. Reading the text and savoring the paintings, I came away inspired and thrilled by such fun and colorful works of art. I couldn't wait to get out my paint set! I think children will feel the same.

As a long time admirer of Marc, Klee and Kandinsky this charming book is a visit with old friends. The colors are beautiful. Although suitable to be read aloud to a young child it is equally a delight to an adult.

The artists affiliated under the name "Der Blaue Reiter" (Alexej Jawlensky, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, August Macke, Franz Marc, Gabriele Munter, and Marianne von Werefkin), used color with expressionistic and symbolic meaning that readily appeals to children. Animals, people, landscapes, as well as abstract subjects, are rendered with vibrant non-representational color and energetic brushwork that affirms children's own expressive artistic impulses. The text combines historical details of the artistic friendship that united these artists with lively explorations of and comparisons between several of their art works (presented in excellent reproductions). Prestel's Adventures in Art series forms the heart of my classroom art library because of their beautiful reproductions, but the texts are of varying quality. The best in the series are this one, I Wish I Didn't Have to Sleep (Keith Haring), Animal Dreams (Paul Klee), Dreaming Pictures (Paul Klee), A Day in Japan with Hokusai, Visiting Vincent van Gogh, Artist in the Desert (O'Keeffe), Gustav Klimt: Silver, Gold, and Precious Stones, A Day with Picasso, Frida Kahlo: The Artist in the Blue House, and Cut-Out Fun with Matisse.