cover image Stories

Stories

Philip Yenawine. Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers, $14 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-385-30256-2

In these four volumes the author, director of education at New York City's Museum of Modern Art, offers an imagination-sparking tour of paintings from the museum's collection. In Lines , he helps readers see this essential painterly element in its many guises: broad brush strokes, wiggly finger paintings, even the spaces between colors. Stories promotes interpretation of such legendary practitioners as Rousseau, Dali and Chagall. Shapes encourages perception of nonrepresentational forms; in a Cezanne still life, for instance, are geometric forms underlying both objects and composition. Colors explores hues--vibrant or dusky, serene or disquieting--and the responses they can engender in a viewer. A brief note on each painting appears in the back of each book. (Unfortunately, the red-and-black format of these indices reduces readability.) These works will enrich a trip to the museum for teachers, parents and children. Ages 7-10. (Apr.)