Getting to Know the Worlds Greatest Artists: Van Gogh by Mike Venezia, Mike Venezia (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

Briefly examines the life and work of the nineteenth-century Dutchman who was one of the greatest artist of all time.

Children's Literature

Mike Venezia is an artist who believes that kids will take to art if it is presented with humor. In the series, "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists," Venezia has written an irreverent but factual biography of van Gogh. The color reproductions of the artist's work are often accompanied by funny comments: "Because van Gogh was always sending and receiving letters, he got to know his postman pretty well..." followed by the famous painting of "The Postman Roulin." Junior high teachers have given this series high marks because their students remember anecdotes about the artists and then want to dig deeper.

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4 A bizarre juxtaposition of cartoons and sly jokes with reproductions of the intense chromatic portraits and landscapes of the mentally-tortured painter ends in a tasteless mix. In an attempt to be lighthearted, Venezia seems to be laughing at van Gogh's unhappiness. The famous Bedroom at Arles is presented as ``pretty neat'' because his friend Gauguin complained that van Gogh was messy. The Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear ``looks like he wished he hadn't done it,'' and, soon after painting a ``scary'' Wheatfield with Crows, ``van Gogh shot himself. He died two days later.'' The use of cartoon-like ``asides'' works in Robert Quackenbush's brief biographies for this age group, but it isn't effective in introducing art. Perhaps it is the incongruity of great paintings and slapstick drawings that jars, but more likely it is that Venezia reduces passion to petulance and explains genius as a matter of bright colors and thick paint. The book has some good reproductions which can be used to introduce young children to van Gogh's paintings, but the text is neither fun nor funny. Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, N.J.

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