Roy Lichtenstein's ABC

Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism

Roy Lichtenstein's ABC Details

Amazon.com Review This little ABC book is so wonderful that adults may have trouble sharing it with the babies, toddlers, and growing children in their midst. Every two-page spread contains an alphabet letter and a painting by Roy Lichtenstein, one of the first and most successful of the pop artists. The 26 letters here were each lifted from one of Lichtenstein's prints, drawings, or paintings, and each has a style and a presence all its own, apart from the art on the facing page. Finally, below each member of the alphabet, in comic-book type, are a few words that begin with that letter and refer to objects or ideas pictured in the art on the opposite page. Lichtenstein, who died in 1997, was a witty and subtly classical artist who combined humor and whimsy in his work with an effortless dignity and a broad knowledge of art history. His comics-derived imagery was so crisp and stylish when he first rose to prominence--so now, as one might have said in the '60s--that viewers were surprised when in the 1980s he began painting monumental images of abstract friezes from ancient temples. This little book is tremendously appealing, showing paintings of water lilies, dogs, a sweet kiss, a "Matisse" still life with goldfish (and a golf ball), a nurse, a cup of coffee, an ice-cream soda, and other recognizable images. Babies and toddlers especially will love to peruse its pages, and art-loving parents everywhere will be enthralled. --Peggy Moorman Read more

Reviews

I like that the book uses actual Lichtenstein artwork for each illustration, unlike many children's books about an artist or genre which create illustrations that merely mimic an artist's work. Many pages have several words that begin with the indicated letter; for example, on the N page, it lists nurse, neck, nose and nails. This makes for an opportunity to play a game with the kids to see how many things they can find in the illustration that begin with that letter. But sometimes these words are a bit of a stretch (the P pages include perspective, planes, and point, which might be a bit more difficult for younger kids). As a book for a parent/child to read together, there's not much to read. For my purposes---reading aloud with a class---the lack of text is fine because I can lead the discussion. Since I couldn't find a book that describes the Ben Day Dot process, I can make this work.

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