Children's Books




Collection “L'Art en jeu”
[Art Play Books]
Edited by ╔lizabeth Amzallag-AugΘ et Sophie Curtil.
36 pp., hardbound, illus., 20.5 x 20.5 cm.
Price: 80 FF.

A series of books designed to introduce children to the pleasure of twentieth-century art. Each painting or sculpture, chosen from the collections of the MusΘe national d'art moderne, reveals its secrets page after page through images, questions, drawings, and games.

new Joaquin TorrΦs Garcia Composition universelle 1998. 20 x 20 cm, 36 pp.illustr. Collection Art en jeu Price : 80 FF. ISBN 2 85850 988 3

This rather solemn title conceals a wonderful inventory of signs and symbols that recall the creation of the world.
The almost childish drawings (or let us call them primitive) appear one by one, revealing themselves as they were when first etched into clay or stone.
First comes the fish, as simple as the shape cut out by French children on 1st April; then the sun and its rays forming hair, followed by the crescent moon, the stars (of David), and waves in the shape of zigzags. The backdrop of the Great Universe has been clearly indicated. Processing slowly in a manner reminiscent of the story of Noah's Ark are the "beasts which fly, crawl, and hold themselves erect on their legs". The tone is both biblical and full of humour. "Between the animals, standing stiffly erect, is Mankind, a term which means woman + man". Then, listed as if in a catalogue, come human conquests and inventions - boats, houses, the wheelbarrow, or the train, always sketched with just a few lines and simple shading.
Author: Sophie Curtil

Titles available in French only

Jean Arp, PΘpin gΘant 1987. ISBN 2 85850 388 5 - OF 3100

The Giant Pip leaves its base and wanders through the natural environment in all four seasons of the year. It becomes a giant pebble worn smooth by the sea, a cloud or bird, wings outstretched in the vast, blue sky, a pip in an enormous piece of fruit, or a snowman. Jean Arp’s sculpture is always indefinable.

Pierre Bonnard, L'Atelier au mimosa 1988. ISBN : 2 85850 482 2- FO 3106

The Studio with Mimosa: Mimosa is the yellow ochre that sparkles through the window of the artist’s studio. On the canvas, transparency and mirrors create an amazing universe in which back and front are of equal value. The scenery is a tapestry, the page can be folded and unfolded like a curtain.

Constantin Brancusi, Le Coq 1990. ISBN : 2 85850 548 9 - FO 3114

The various Cockerels created by Brancusi are all presented here. Playing with the bases that are an integral part of the works, and with the materials used for each of the sculptures (bronze, stone, plaster or wood), the author provides an introduction to the combinative world of the great Romanian artist.

Georges Braque, Femme α la guitare 1987. ISBN : 2 85850 389 3 - FO 3101

The artist is a magician who conjures up objects and characters, transforms them and makes them disappear. The painter is also a musician, playing with lines and colours as if they were notes of music. Each painting has its own melody. Listen to the one played by the Woman with the Guitar

Alexander Calder, Fishbones 1989. ISBN : 2 85850 477 6 - FO 3111

Yellow. Blue. Red. Black and white. Forms take shape and come to life: a blue fish, a red fish, black stars. Calder, the "king of wire", articulates them on long metal rods, creating a mobile which sways and changes shape with the wind.

Marc Chagall, Double portrait au verre de vin 1993. ISBN: 2 85850 719 8 - OF 4991

This Double Portrait with a Wine Glass tells the love story of Marc Chagall and his young wife, Bella. Yet, quite apart from his own story, the primeval painter celebrates on canvas the marriage of all creatures with water and fire, air and earth.

Gaston Chaissac Personnage aux cheveux verts, roses et blancs Edited by Max-Henry de Larminat 1998. 36 pp., illus., 20 x 20 cm. Art Play Book series (available in French only) Price : 80 FF. ISBN 2 85850 959 X

The book opens like a wallpaper catalogue with torn pages. : lambeau jaune comme les blΘs, tache bleue de ciel, touches de vert empruntΘes aux taillis...
Un dr⌠le de personnage aux cheveux verts, roses et blancs se fait un habit de voyage de ces morceaux colorΘs et se promΦne dans un puzzle qui ressemble fort au bocage vendΘen cher α Gaston Chaissac.

Robert Delaunay, La Tour Eiffel 1988. ISBN : 2 85850 430 X - FO 3105

The Eiffel Tower, one of the artist’s favourite subjects. Impossible to take in at a single glance. The metallic architecture unfolds, bends, glows red and explodes in a gigantic kaleidoscope. Varying forms and colours give an indication of how the painter caught the subject in his brushwork

Jean Dubuffet, Le Jardin d'Hiver 1989. ISBN : 2 85850 497 0 - FO 4109

Follow the thread. Accompanied by a strange guide, young readers push open a door into the artist’s world, discovering the black and white plants of the Winter Garden from which strange, brightly-coloured creatures spring out…

Marcel Duchamp, Porte chapeau 1992. ISBN : 2 85850 701 5 - FO 3123

On the chessboard, a strange shape appears. A sort of hook. Then it unfolds and multiplies, resembling the horns of a chamois, the tentacles of an octopus, a star fish. Where do these weird creatures come from? It gradually becomes clear that the claws are made of wood and that they throw back flying hats! Nothing strange about that since this is a Hatstand raised to the dignified position of work of art by Marcel Duchamp when, in 1913, he invented his famous Ready-mades…

Max Ernst, Loplop prΘsente une jeune fille 1991. ISBN : 2 85850 633 7 - FO 3121

The book opens with a keyhole that reveals the hidden world of dreams. The round eye staring at the reader belongs to the visionary artist, Max Ernst, the creator of Lolop Introduces a Young Girl. The Surrealist collage is built up before the reader’s eyes, each object being placed in the composition created by the artist. What connection can there be between a washboard, a horse’s mane, a painted pebble, a frog etc.? These lost objects become riddles - and the reader is left to invent his or her own poem…

Alberto Giacometti, Grande femme II 1989. ISBN : 2 85850 481 4 - FO 3108

The sculptor tirelessly modelled long, thin figures throughout his life. The smallest ones would fit into a matchbox; the largest would make a hole in a ceiling of normal height. The Tall Woman II looks tiny here, behind a cut-out window, or huge when spread over four pages.

Auguste Herbin, Vendredi 1 1994. ISBN : 2 85850 755 4 - FO 3126

This work is named after a day of the week. A twenty-four hour day. And look, the painting also has twenty-four shapes which slot into each other like the parts in a gear. Hours of the day, hours of the night, the hands on the clock complete a revolution, following the rhythm of the planets. Varying shapes and colours enhance the symbolic dimension of this work.

Vassily Kandinsky, Bleu de ciel 1988. ISBN : 2 85850 480 6 - FO 3107

To take us from the infinitesimally small to the infinitely large, Sky Blue is looked at as if through a microscope lens or a telescope. The artist has filled it with strange creatures.

Paul Klee, En rythme 1993. ISBN : 2 85850 715 5 - FO 3125

One! Two! Three! Black! Grey! White! …
This amusing musical dictation forms the opening of the book. Touches of colour succeed each other, laid out like notes of music, taking us all at the same rhythm into the heart of the painting whose title indicates the keyword for this work.

Yves Klein, L'Arbre, grande Θponge bleue 1994. ISBN : 2 85850 752 X - FO 4992

The Tree, large blue sponge begins with a tiny royal blue dot, like a planet lost in the vastness of the sky. Then we move closer to an unknown land which gradually reveals its strange plant life. Is it an island of lava or coral? No, it is an astonishing plant sculpture.

Frantisek Kupka, Autour d'un point 1991. ISBN : 2 85850 609 4 - FO 3120

This painting is gradually revealed Around a dot. The first impression is a view through a magnifying glass. Does the isolated detail correspond to the gaudy designs of a butterfly wing? Or, seen through a telescope, is this a planet dazzling in the night sky or a shower of stars? The artist’s brushes are filled with magic and, on the canvas, the artist recreates a feeling of movement and the infinity of space.

Fernand LΘger, Les Grands plongeurs noirs 1985. ISBN : 2 85850 314 1 - FO 3102

The divers appear in turn - first the black ones, then the blues, the yellows, the reds etc. They become grey and black or disappear. This is how Fernand LΘger’s work The Great Black Divers is gradually revealed.

Casimir MalΘvitch, L'Homme qui court 1996. ISBN : 2 85850 865 8 - FO 4995

A succession of 30 squares is revealed as the pages are turned. Close-ups show the vividly-coloured painted matter and the perfect harmony between the geometry and the symbolism of the motifs - vertical lines in crosses and swords, horizontal strips beneath the feet of the Man Running. The title is repeated and recomposed: The Man - running - Running - the Man… suggesting his rhythm, and the breathlessness of the fugitive.

RenΘ Magritte, Le Double secret 1989. ISBN : 2 85850 534 9 - FO 3103

Cut-outs and hiding places reveal Magritte’s sense of humour and ability to weave spells. The "cut-out" head reveals the interior of the character and is an ideal opportunity to explore, in imagination, the world of the painter.

Henri Matisse, La Tristesse du Roi 1991. ISBN : 2 85850 594 2 - FO 3117

Simple shapes, cut out in coloured paper, seem to float off the paper before our eyes and regroup as the pages are turned.
Is this a sun or an orange? A flower or a hand? Gradually the composition takes shape and the outlines become clearer. As if we were in Matisse’ studio, his work The Sadness of the King comes into being before us in its dazzling harmony, thanks to the magic of a few snips of the scissors.

Joan Mir≤ Bleu II 1990. ISBN : 2 85850 547 0 - FO 3112

Blue as a summer sky, blue as a calm sea… For Mir≤, blue is the colour of his dreams. A row of black dots and a splash of red cross the immense space, bringing life to the canvas like a celestial piece of music. Everybody can decipher his or her own impression of what is hidden in a bareness taken to its extreme. By a series of frames and perspectives, the artist gives a few clues…

Piet Mondrian, New York City 1 1992. ISBN : 2 85850 654 X - FO 3122

Red, yellow and blue rectangles. Vertical and horizontal lines cutting across each other. Into infinity. Hiding places and cut-outs explore the varying geometric patterns. The author of the book skilfully reveals how Mondrian, nourished and steeped in the noisy frenzy of New York, achieved such pure lines, like a window wide open on the New World.

Louise Nevelson, Tropical garden II 1997. ISBN : 2 85850 905 0 - FO 4996

Fifteen black, up-ended wooden boxes gradually reveal their secrets. They are inhabited by mysterious objects, made of fragments of planks, pieces of wood retrieved here and there, glued, nailed into place… There are totem poles, coffins or scorched trees. Yet the boxes also form a tropical garden whose outlines are reminiscent of the skyscrapers of New York city where the artist spent nearly the whole of her life.

Pablo Picasso, Le Minotaure. 1987. ISBN : 2 85850 428 8 - FO 3104 english version : 80 FF ISBN : 2 85850 431 8 - FO 3115

Picasso always identified with the Minotaur. He stated that "If somebody drew a line through all the places I have visited during my life, it may well form the outline of a Minotaur." The creature is running away, providing an excuse for a race through the creative imagination of this sacred monster.

Jackson Pollock, Argent sur noir, blanc, jaune et rouge 1995. ISBN : 2 85850 814 3 - FO 4994

Splashes, splatters, drips… Pollock invented the dripping technique which consists of throwing paint onto a canvas laid on the floor.
A cut-out isolates one detail, round as a planet. A frame takes us into a forest. Close-ups of arabesques suggest vast silvery rivers… There are strange resemblances between the graphics of Mother Nature and the writing of the artist who "danced" around his canvas like Red Indian painters from the Wild West.

Kurt Schwitters, Le Point sur le i 1994. ISBN : 2 85850 804 6 - FO 3127

Schwitters fills his pockets with the thousand and one pieces of paper that litter pavements - theatre tickets, paper cuttings, stamped envelopes etc. The artist then snips away at these materials and glues them to create Dotting the "i’s", in which he makes subtle use of colour harmonies. The small reproduction of the work is folded into an envelope - and young readers are invited to collect papers in the envelope to make their own collages.

Yves Tanguy, Jour de lenteur 1991. ISBN : 2 85850 570 5 - FO 3118

The Slow Day opens with a vast landscape spread over four pages. Black shadows are dotted across it, revealing the presence of strange, coloured shapes. Are they men from outer space? Engines of war? Phantom ships? The author suggests and questions but states nothing with any certainty. Did Tanguy himself have the answer? Making skilful use of frames, the painting is presented like a stage set, revealing a world of pretence and secret lives.

Bram Van Velde, Sans titre 1936-1941 1989. ISBN : 2 85850 488 1 - FO 3110

A strange world which has no name other than "Nameless". There is a suggestion of a red man, a toucan, a marmotte… Images appear and disappear, emerging from the waves of gouache that the artist made increasingly light and more and more transparent

Claude Viallat, BΓche 1997. ISBN : 2 85850 806 2 - FO 4993

A strange shape appears. Is it a sponge? A bean? A cloud? It changes colour and shape, turns upside down. Then it multiplies, occupying long strips of fabric, the brightly-coloured Canvas that the artist borrows from tents, or from the sails of boats. Cut-outs on the page suggest the stencils that the artist uses to play with shapes and "counter-shapes", filling the front and back of his work with infinite variations.



Titles available in English and French

Andy Warhol, Ten Lizes. 1990. ISBN : 2 85850 549 7 - FO 3113 english version : 80 FF ISBN : 2 85850 545 4 - FO 3116

Not one but ten Lizes. Superstar Liz Taylor fascinated Andy Warhol, the king of Pop Art. In this world where "everything is pretty", there are flowers in sherbet colours. Cut them out and a series of ten Lizes will smile at you from their paper frames. Flower-Women or Fatal Beauties, Liz and the Mona Lisa have the same, fragile smile. Soon to be rubbed out. Yet their image is eternal, an invitation to many a voyage.

Le Centre Georges Pompidou 1996. ISBN : 2 85850 912 3- FO 4997 english version : 80 FF ISBN : 2 85850 922 0 - FO 4998 japanish version : 85 FF ISBN : 2 85850 941 7

Young readers are invited to discover an architectural work - the Centre Georges Pompidou. The transparency of the building, which has been compared to a gigantic animal, gradually reveals its framework while its brilliant colours (red, blue, yellow, green) express its vital functions. Unusual details, a humorous text and an amusing page layout emphasise the joyful audacity of Piano and Rogers’ architecture.

Latest update tuesday 2 december 1998 ⌐ CNAC-GP