************
THE 8 WINNERS OF “THE ART GAME REVIEW & GIVEAWAY” ARE:
Emilie (Comment #19)
Sue LW (Comment #618)
debby spivey (Comment #174)
Lisa B (Comment #205)
Sara (Comment #511)
Pat G. (Comment #132)
nurit b (Comment #583)
Heather C (Comment #217)
CONGRATULATIONS winners, I have already sent emails to each of you to request your mailing address!
************
September is but a few days away, which means the time is ripe to expand kids’ exposure to some of the great artists of the last two centuries with fun, but informative ideas like Laurence King Publishing’s The Art Game: Artists’ Trump Cards.
Now, before I go any further, I have to express a bit of remorse over the fact my favorite two artists, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, were excluded from this fabulous pack of playing cards.
I grew up with this Klee print hanging on the wall just outside my room. It was an outdoor art festival purchase by my parents. I took it with me to college and have held on to it throughout my marriage. I have since purchased another print, Senecio, 1922.
A framed poster of Kandinsky’s Mit and Gege, 1929 hangs over my mantle. It was a Valentine’s Day gift from Jeff, and I love that the kids look at it and see a modern expression of God calling to Noah on the ark. Once you “see” something like that through your children’s eyes–you can never “unsee” it (not that I’d want to), thankyouverymuch.
That is the way it is with art; it speaks to us and calls our name–or it doesn’t. For instance, I do not much care for Kandinsky’s early figurative works, but my eyes are immediately drawn to his modern, abstract pieces, which are more vibrant. For the same reason, I love Klee’s work. The color and geometric lines appeal to me and It was not surprising to learn they were lifelong friends. In my opinion, there are hints of influence of the other in some of their pieces.
And now that you know who I feel is MISSING from The Art Game: Artists’ Trump Cards, let me assure you there are many who made the cut:
Pablo Picasso
Henri Matisse
René Magritte
Aleksandr Rodchenko
Salvador Dalí
Marc Chagall
Marcel Duchamp
Frida Kahlo
Piet Mondrian
Edward Hopper
Jackson Pollock
Mark Rothko
Francis Bacon
Robert Rauschenberg
Andy Warhol
Bruce Nauman
Joseph Beuys
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Jean-Michel Basquiat
David Hockney
Louise Bourgeois
Cindy Sherman
Gerhard Richter
Marina Abramović
Lucian Freud
Andreas Gursky
Maurizio Cattelan
Takashi Murakami
Jeff Koons
Damien Hirst
Ai Weiwei
Banksy
Of course, good ol’ Picasso makes every cut; after all, “his first word was “piz,” short of lápiz the Spanish word for ‘pencil.’” and he co-founded an art movement known as cubism.
He’s sort of a big deal.
Frida Kahlo is another I enjoy seeing. Who doesn’t love a woman confident enough to sport a unibrow and mustache–so much so that she included them in her self-portraits?
She’s THAT awesome.
She also altered her birth date by three years so she could say her birth coincided with the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution.
Some of her work is a bit more than I can handle, but in college I was drawn to her Self Portrait with Monkey and ended up purchasing a coffee table book of her paintings to learn more about her.
While these Artists’ Trump Cards could easily be a great tool for identifying different artists (Mikkel Sommer did a beautiful job with the illustrations of each author), it is, by design, a simplified take on the card game, Trumps.
As you can see, each card has six items of comparison; Influence, ‘Shock of the new’ effect, Versatility, Top auction price (USD), Critical reception, and The ‘beautiful’ factor.
Here is the author’s note regarding the selection criteria and marking system used for the game:
“Quantifying the beauty or impact of art is a fine art in itself. It is moreover an imprecise art. Beauty is an especially thorny category to gauge, residing in the proverbial eye of the beholder. But as an aesthetic concern, it has too often been relegated to the margins of art criticism. The ‘beauty factor’ here depends on how far the artist has conformed to, or actively subverted, a given ideal of beauty–whether classical, Modernist, decorative or otherwise. Some art, of course, is ugly and beautiful in the same instant. The scores elsewhere reflect the fact that modern and contemporary art are massively eclectic.”
In the game, players choose one of these items of comparison from their card and read it out. Other players then read out the value of the same item and the highest value wins all the cards.
Maybe it is more like War than Trumps, after all.
Either way, guess what? It is fun and simple and beautiful all tied into one neat little package that you and your kids will enjoy.
HERE’S THE CHANCE FOR EIGHT INDIVIDUALS TO WIN ONE PACK OF ARTISTS’ TRUMP CARDS
Laurence King Publishers, who I adore because they send colorful print catalogs and just create NEAT STUFF, has generously offered to give eight (8) lucky winners one (1) pack of The Art Game: Artists’ Trump Cards!
HERE’S HOW TO ENTER:
To enter the giveaway, answer the following question:
Who is your favorite artist (or artists) and why?
THE RULES/DETAILS:
» One entry per person, please.
» Participants must be in the Continental U.S.
» No entries after 11:00 AM (CST) on Friday, August 29, 2014
» Winners will be selected at random and announced Friday afternoon.
THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING! COMMENTS ARE CLOSED – THE WINNERS ARE ANNOUNCED AT THE TOP OF THE POST!
Get your Liberal Arts hearts ready, set, go!
Heather Sanders is a leading homeschooling journalist who inspires homeschooling families to live, love and learn. Married to Jeff, Heather lives in the East Texas Piney Woods where she currently home schools two of her three kids.