1 comments about Chagall Stained Glass Coloring Book.

1. This book provides a wonderful way for language teachers to introduce art into the language classroom. The possibilities for using it are endless. I highly recommend it. (The only book that really applies to Hebrew teachers. For Spanish and French teachers, there are many, many coloring books available).

4 comments about Dreamer from the Village: The Story of Marc Chagall.

1. This picture book biography offers a dreamy, almost surreal text accompanied, of course, by Chagall-inspired pictures. The style suits the subject matter well, turning the book into a cross between a biography and a tribute. While it may not be the most useful book for reports, it certainly conveys the personality of Chagall very well and is more likely than a straight biography to get readers interested in the artist's life and work. An endnote provides some more solid facts and historical context, as well as an actual example of Chagall's art. Judaism was prominent in Chagall's life and work, and is thus woven into both text and illustrations of this biography.
   
   This book was named a 2006 Notable Children's Book of Jewish Content by the Association of Jewish Libraries.
   
   To hear a review of this book by a pair of talented third graders, listen to the podcast The Book of Life at www.jewishbooks.blogspot.com (February 2006 episode).



2. I use this book when presenting the artwork "I and the Village" to 4th grade students. I really gives life to my speech and shows the children in vivid color the life of this wonderful artist.



3. This books accomplishes A LOT! The author has tailored Chagall's story to embrace his experience as a child who doesn't see things as "normal" people do. Any child that has experienced being different will relate. The illustrations beautifully capture Chagall's style and do a great job in preparing children for appreciating his art.



4. This lovely book is a delightful introduction for children to the life of Marc Chagall. The vibrancy of the gorgeous illustrations (in Chagall style, of course) paired with the simple and charming text, make this a sure winner. Chagall's Jewish roots are lovingly portrayed; from his first days in heder, to the holidays he celebrated with his family. For example, here is the entire text from a vibrant double page spread of his family observing Passover: "The seasons brought wondrous holidays. On Passover, Marc loved the colorful pictures in the Haggadah. He loved the deep violet of the wine in his father's glass. And when he opened the door for the prophet Elijah, silver stars trembled on a velvet spring sky." The illustrations exude a domestic tranquility and beauty and even the choice of typeface for the text is appealing in its simplicity. The reader eventually finds out why Chagall is so unusual: "Marc knew he was different from other boys. He saw things they didn't see. On the Sabbath, enchanted by the singing of prayers, Marc saw houses floating." Chagall's devout family regards image making as a sin, but Marc goes to art school and eventually ends up in Paris after World War II. At the age of 90 he gets his own exhibition at the Louvre--one of the very few living artists to be honored in such a way. You don't have to love art to love this book.
   Reviewed by Lisa Silverman

1 comments about Marc Chagall: What Colour Is Paradise? (Adventures in Art).

1. Marc Chagall's paintings are beautiful and intricate, and this book attempts to deliver both reproductions of his paintings and an abbreviated biography. There are a few photographs scattered throughout as well, mostly of Chagall's family. I would warn readers, however, that even though the book is listed as suitable for children ages 4-8, a 4-year-old is not likely to enjoy this book, except perhaps as a free-form discussion tool. The narrative is too dense (short as it is) to hold such a young child's attention. My daughter, 4, is very bright and social, but she still couldn't look at the book with me in a conventional way. Instead we talked about what we saw in the pictures and how the colors blended together and created a mood, sometimes sad, sometimes happy. The book is worth purchasing for an older child, however, and I would recommend it for children at least age 6 and up. It is rather thin, but is filled with wonderful things.

1 comments about The Bible: Genesis, Exodus, The Song of Solomon.

1. I'm not well qualified to critique the word of God so I'll limit my comments to the illustrations. Many of the illustrations are small segments cut out of larger works of art. It is difficult to appreciate the wonderful paintings of Chagall when you only see 5% of a painting. Otherwise this is a beautiful little book.

3 comments about Chagall Cards: 24 Ready-to-Mail Cards (Card Books).

1. I bought these cards so that I could have 'tiny works of art' to hang in my cubicle at work. I have people passing by all the time and asking about them. I studied art history in college, so any chance I get to teach someone a bit about art thrills me. Because these cards come in a book of 24, I also have a few cards left over to send.

   A good buy!




2. I realize that they are postcards, but I don't think I am going to be able to send them to anyone. I lvoe the artwork too much. The colors aren't quite true to the actual pieces, but I am sure it was mass-produced. Other than that, these are beautiful miniatures of the real thing.



3. I realize that they are postcards, but I don't think I am going to be able to send them to anyone. I love the artwork too much. The colors aren't quite true to the actual pieces, but I am sure it was mass-produced. Other than that, these are beautiful miniatures of the real thing.

3 comments about Marc Chagall (Jewish Encounters).

1. The reader turns the first page of this little book to see the 1929 oil on canvas painting, "Lovers" by Marc Chagall. The painting depicts a man and woman seated and embracing; the woman's head turned inward on the man's breast, while the man, an expression of calm and contentment, peers upward, watching a winged angel flying overhead, across a deep purple sky. The painting has the deep and rich signature colour of all Chagall's work, though lacks the intense emotional suffering and ambivalence that makes up so much of his oeuvre, however this painting evokes a mystical love, a true love which, in my opinion, expresses the relationship between the artist and his beautiful wife, Bella.
   
   As part of the Jewish Encounter project, Marc Chagall by Jonathan Wilson is one contribution devoted to the promotion of Jewish literature, culture, and ideas. (One can find all these contributions here on Amazon.)
   
   It can be observed that most of Chagall's work, according to the author, is an expression of his philosophy, his religious sensibility if you will, in the form of the "literalization of metaphors", deeply grounded in the mystical and symbolic Hasidic world and Yiddish folktales, which include in their writings the "repository of flying animals and miraculous events." (P. 13)
   
   It is impossible to label Chagall's work as "Expressionism", but the representation of an acute imagination, coloured in fantasy, depicting highly charged religious symbols, including in several works, Christs Crucifixion in a variety of contexts. What I love about Chagall is the viewer is drawn into the work by its striking colour and busy subject matter and is compelled to study it, because the meaning of the painting must be discovered as it is not apparent on a superficial viewing.
   
   Wilson does a wonderful job of narrating Chagall's life in terms of the major events that the artist experienced, spanning through the Russian revolution, two world wars, the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. Wilson suggests that in viewing Chagall's paintings against the backdrop of these major historical events will see the artist's work as a response to them, and his personal inner conflict between his "Jewishness" and his focus on Christ's Crucifixion, and also his attempt at secularism in many of his paintings.
   
   My favourite paintings by the artist are his various representations of love that display an ethereal, mystical quality, a sublimeness that to me captures love in their most revealing forms, as Wilson comments,
   
   "Chagall's vision of love, so appealing to the human soul, frequently involves a merging of two faces, or bodies, into one. In this regard he is Platonic, as his figures pursue their other halves in an apparent longing to become whole again. Over and again he paints the myth that Aristophanes recounts in The Symposium." (P.174)
   
   Chagall's life Wilson suggests was an attempt through his art at the reconciliation between two worlds, a genuine effort universalizing or merging opposites, he writes,
   
   "In his paintings, past and present, dream and reality, rabbi and clown, secular and observant, revolutionary and Jew, Jesus and Elijah...all commingle and merge in a world where history and geography but also the laws of physics and nature have been suspended." (P. 210)
   
   Wilson's Marc Chagall is an erudite biography and insightful critical work. Although relatively short in length, manages to capture the artist who is considered along with Picasso and Matisse, one of the icons of Modernism.
   
   
   
   



2. This has made a fascinating artist even more interesting; and you can understand the impact of his life on his technique!



3. A nice short study of Marc Chagall's personal life (wives, children, and homes) and of his essential cultural roots including religious inspirations and conflicts. Chagall was fated to live a long life amidst a century of enormous social turmoil and with direct emotional ties to countries in the middle of the storms --- the USSR, France, U.S. and Israel.
   
   Professor Wilson is a fine writer with an eye for the arresting detail. His book is a very good overview of the complex life of a great artist.
   
   (Readers will have to refer to the Internet or art books for the actual paintings referred to in this text---unless happily they have already in person viewed the work of Marc Chagall.)

1 comments about Marc Chagall (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists).

1. We own several books in the Mike Venezia series - artists and musicians. I find that Venezia introduces children to the wonderful world of art using a combination of straight forward text, original pictures and funny cartoons. This is also a great complement to a child's arts and crafts program or drawing class.

3 comments about I Am Marc Chagall: Text Loosely Inspired by My Life by Marc Chagall (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers).

1. Picture book biographies encompass a wide range of styles, talents, and age-groups. What a child gets out of any given biography depends entirely on why they even want a bio in the first place. I'll say right here and now that if you want a picture book biography that is just straight facts about the artist in question, without a drop of whimsy or artistic expression, go nab a copy of Mike Venezia's, "Marc Chagall". He does good report-ready work. If, on the other hand, you'd like something a little more fun and carefree, consider Bimba Landmann's, "I Am Marc Chagall". Artistically faithful to the painter in question, wonderful with its words, and an overall spellbinding introduction to a great man, this is a must-have title. You've never seen anything remotely like it before, and I doubt you'll find anything to compare to it again.
   
   He was born in Vitebsk, a small Russian farming town within a Jewish community. A creative inquisitive kid, Marc Chagall professed a love of art very early in his life. When an art teacher proclaimed that he did have talent, Chagall was delighted. He attended art schools, painted like no one else, and always had his lovely Bella at his side. Then it was off to Paris to make a name for himself, and from then on Chagall's life was a blur. He came back to Russia to teach painting to the children and chafed under political scrutiny. Just in time he and his family sailed for America just as the Second World War broke out in Europe. Says the book, "During the journey I wondered if the silent stars above could already see my future: my life in America; my return to France after the war; the museum of my paintings in Nice; my stained glass in Jerusalem, Chicago, New York; my mosaics... Yes, perhaps the stars could already see my entire life traced out on the earth like a picture by Marc Chagall".
   
   Until now, Italian author/illustrator Bimba Landmann has been content to limit her art primarily to picture book biographies painted in two-dimensions, as in "The Genius of Leonardo" and "A Boy Named Giotto". Now she's burst out of her painterly shell and embraced fully the wacked-out world of multimedia. If the wonderful use of tiny details doesn't get you, the sheer gutsyness of the colors will. Landmann presents Chagall (shown briefly at the beginning in a 1910 photograph) as a purple-haired suit-clad pioneer. From the Hebrew letters hung on a line like items in a wash to the tiny pillowcases, amber suns, and real lit candles, Landmann evokes shetl life with a hearty love. Then it's off to Paris where the sun and sky are a vibrant red-orange and tiny cardboard boxes become art exhibitions. What impressed me the most about Landmann's art was that she wasn't afraid to reproduce Chagall's artworks into teeny tiny paintings. So many biographies for children (especially the picture books) will talk and talk and talk about an artist and never show you a single painting they actually did. But in this book you might see, "I and the Village" held by a tiny Chagall on the streets of Paris then see "The Green Fiddler" on a cart sometime later. Even the settings and the images in Chagall's day-to-day life remain faithful to the artwork found in his paintings. I don't think any artist would dare invoke Chagall at such length, even if they were doing a biography of his life. So this brazen tribute is stunning precisely because it praises him so highly and replicates him so accurately. A second reading and you just sit staring at the pictures, lost for words.
   
   Now Landmann chose to write this book in the first-person, which makes the book rather troublesome. On the title page we see that the text was, "loosely inspired by `My Life' by Marc Chagall". That's fine and all, but that means that even if Landmann is quoting him directly throughout the entire book, she doesn't cite those quotations at the back. So if, "I Am Marc Chagall" says he thought this or wondered that, we have no proof. Is this book a biography or a fictional biography, then? In spite of the lackadaisical citing, I vote "biography". After all, Landmann has cited her ultimate source (though the "loosely based" mention makes me feel kind of woozy). And there's a lovely timeline at the back that does wonders to allay a reviewer's fears. I especially liked the multiple Chagalls that appear at the bottom of the page. They grow up and grow old as the timeline progresses, ending with a white (rather than purple) haired Chagall smiling cheekily at the finish.
   
   In many ways this book reminded me of two other wacky three-dimensional alternative material-illustrated picture books published in 2006. There was Lauren Child's, "The Princess and the Pea" (done in a shadowbox format, much like those found in "Chagall"), and "City Beats" by S. Kelly Rammell. Bimba Landmann hasn't quite reached household name status yet here in the United States, but books like "I Am Marc Chagall" may certainly start to pave her way. One of the finest publications of 2006 and a truly wonderful book to boot. It makes even the sequins in the sky look like beautiful stars above.



2. Inspired by Chagall's biography, My Life, Landmann has merged the artist's life and the development of his artistic style into this visually dramatic children's book.
   
   The dialogue captures the dream-like quality of the artist's work, and the illustrations recreate and reflect Chagall's art through coloration and medium. Her use of texture demonstrates the feel of Chagall's abstract and surrealistic view of the world.
   
   The text tackles several difficult topics, ranging from self-development, self-identity, the creative process and the ability to verbalize personal desires within a family structure. In a compressed timeframe, Chagall's life is integrated into the historical events of the century. Landmann uses the historical references to establish Chagall's concept that the real world is within each of us.
   
   Judaic elements run through the story. Chagall the boy goes to Hebrew school and studies Torah while searching for his identity. The events of revolution, war, hardship and escape, and their impact on Jews, are woven into the text.
   
   A timeline provides an accurate history of the artist's life and a correlation to his paintings. Recommended for age 8 and up. Reviewed by: Christine Maasdam



3. This picture book biography is loosely based on Marc Chagall's autobiography My Life. Beginning with his childhood in a small Russian farming town, Landmann details his early life, his family's observances of the Jewish holidays, his schooling, and the development of his artistic talent, despite being discouraged and unappreciated by his family and teachers. Chagall's experience in art school, his moves to Paris, Germany, and America, his marriage, and his involvement in the Russian Revolution are also included. The detailed, intricate three-dimensional mixed media illustrations are a collage of fabrics, metals, woods, papers, clay, photographs, and objects from nature. They do an incredible job of capturing the places and characters of Chagall's life and will delight readers through multiple readings and viewings. A timeline of Chagall's life is also included making this a wonderfully accessible, highly entertaining, and exceptional introduction to one of the greatest painters in the world.

5 comments about May I Feel Said He (Art & Poetry).

1. A terrific combination of art appreciation classes and literature for reading outdoors--took me back some 35 years to college days in its content, and then back up to the present in its pervasive wisdom. A joy for the ear and eye, just like its message--lovemaking is for lots of ages and stages and a delight to the senses. Should be on every bookstore's front tables.



2. If you are a Chagall or e.e. cummings lover, this book is not to be missed. It is an absolute treasure and such a beautiful marriage of words and art! The images perfectly complement the text. Highly recommended, even as an introduction to either of these two artists.



3. Just got this book and I love it. I purchased it based on reviews that I read and they are 100% correct. Beautiful pictures and a touching poem. Great as a wedding gift.



4. This is one of the most beautiful combinations of poetry and art. The poem is really quite beautiful. The art is inspirational. I don't knwo that I'd give it to a couple for their wedding though, cause the poem is about a man who is cheating on his wife....So don't take the advice of the other reviewer, the couple might look at you funny!



5. I was given this book several years ago when I was out book shopping with a teacher I love to be with.
   
   We were both rather caught up that day in the spirit of the art and poem.
   Feels almost a decade ago, so it probably was.
   I liked Chagall's pictures some of which here I had not seen, will never see (though I've made a good stab at knowing his work)and appreciate this book form and maybe, in my way, felt that the poem was pushing me to consider them from a perspective I might have seen differently sans text. It would be typical that my friend was drawn to the words reading it to me several times, and I think drawing a bit of customer interest, while I was held by the images. Well we were in a children's bookstore in the art books looking for things to use in teaching...so I guess in a way...we were behaving rather like a child might finding the National Geo holding pictures of "naked people" something I recall of my brothers days. I imagine the internet fills that role now.....
   
   This said I would contextualize this...I was raised in another "time" and in the arts and literature. In my era if creating a piece we were asked frankly to shock, disarm, question to engage with literature and art for its ability to speak the human truth that often is hidden or obfuscated. That love contains a side that exists physically ....a kind of accepted truth. Thus you have Cummings poem. Which is a bit..risque. Or these paintings. I don't know why I find reality TV not this or expressions in culture now different but I do. I am aware that changes in outlooks now conclude that a book like this one would be kind of a scandal in school.
   Not that I was taking it there, but in my time I think "nobigdeal". I find this odd with what goes on media wise...but enough said.
   
   I would imagine the persons exchanging this as a gift would be talking of love, or like my friend and I feeling silly happy about an aspect of living. If I put it on the coffee table in a stack of art books my kids read it, enjoy the pictures, like the book but I doubt think much one way or another besides its sweet. To me at the time I found it spoke to journeys in our lives, positive aspects of this thing denoted as love functioning in our days....funny...irreverent. Rather a playful relationship to the viewer maintained, nice diversion. I'd give it to someone with a heart.

No comments about Marc Chagall: 1887-1985 (Special Edition).