How to Talk to Children About Art

A must-have for adults who want their children to love and understand art, this guide provides valuable tips for making your visit to a museum or gallery with children a success. It anticipates how kids might react to paintings by artists as diverse as Kandinsky, Hopper, Picasso, Van Gogh, and Turner and then gives you the tools to have a meaningful discussion about what they see. It doesn't matter if you only know a little about painting or if you are more interested in sports or sciences; if you trust your own eyes, you can help children "enter" a picture and feel comfortable in the world it depicts. Sample questions and answers about 30 artworks from the Renaissance to the 21st century provide historical background, explain genres such as still life and portrait, and demystify religious and mythological themes. This new edition features all new paintings along with labeled sections for easy reference according to the age of your child (5-7 years, 8-10 years, 11-13+ years). Full-color reproductions of all the paintings invite study at home either before or after a museum visit.

Françoise Barbe-Gall is a lecturer in art history at l'Ecole du Louvre in Paris, France.