Description
Before she became an artist, Louise Bourgeois was an apprentice in her family's tapestry shop, where her mother was a weaver of tapestries. Discover how Louise learned about form and color, and how memories of her mother and her past are stitched into all of Louise's works.
ISBN
1419718819 / 9781419718816
Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Abrams Books for Young Readers (2016), 40 pages
User reviews
LibraryThing member AbigailAdams26
In this lyrically-told, beautifully-illustrated biographical picture-book, author Amy Novesky and illustrator Isabelle Arsenault weave the story of 20th-century French-American artist Louise Bourgeois, who is particularly noted for her large-scale sculpture. Bourgeois often used the image of the
Although less of a standard biography - many of the details of Bourgeois' life are absent, particularly her strong left-leaning activism in the 1970s - than it is an exploration of certain themes in its subject's life and work, Cloth Lullaby is nevertheless an informative book, one which will introduce many children to an artist they might otherwise not have encountered. The artwork by Isabelle Arsenault, who also worked on the marvelous French-Canadian graphic novel, Jane, the Fox and Me, is simply beautiful, utilizing a variety of media - pencil, ink, pastel, watercolor and photoshop - to create a rich visual feast. Recommended to anyone looking for picture-books about artists, or about the ways in which our childhood experiences shape us.
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spider in her work, a figure who represented her beloved mother, a weaver who worked in tapestry restoration. As the title of Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois makes plain, images of weaving and fabric are important in understanding this artist's life and work, and author and illustrator carefully chose various strands of story and image in creating a narrative that emphasizes the influence of her mother and childhood on her later development as an artist.Although less of a standard biography - many of the details of Bourgeois' life are absent, particularly her strong left-leaning activism in the 1970s - than it is an exploration of certain themes in its subject's life and work, Cloth Lullaby is nevertheless an informative book, one which will introduce many children to an artist they might otherwise not have encountered. The artwork by Isabelle Arsenault, who also worked on the marvelous French-Canadian graphic novel, Jane, the Fox and Me, is simply beautiful, utilizing a variety of media - pencil, ink, pastel, watercolor and photoshop - to create a rich visual feast. Recommended to anyone looking for picture-books about artists, or about the ways in which our childhood experiences shape us.
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LibraryThing member Smiler69
A gorgeously illustrated story of French artist Louise Bourgeois in a book presumably meant for children but with such sophisticated artwork and text that it works for readers of all ages. The Bourgeois family specialized in repairing and weaving old tapestries and frayed cloths, and Louise came to
I’m a huge fan of illustrator Isabelle Arsenault and am simply in love with her illustration style, blending beautiful watercolours with vintage drawings and imagery, often with a collage effect with a stunning colour palette. She’s a fellow Montrealer and I consider myself incredibly lucky to have once been in a position to commission artwork from her to illustrate a difficult subject matter for the magazine I was working for at the time. I did so because she also has a huge talent conceptually and was able to come up with a truly novel idea to illustrate an article that was impossible to match a photograph to. While she is a genius creatively and technically she is also humble and perfectly pleasant. I have the greatest respect for this artist and am always eager to see her latest projects. This one, like so much of her work, combines beauty and high quality with a very interesting subject matter.
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see her mother as a kindly spider, a repairer of broken things. As she said: “If you bash into the web of a spider she doesn’t get mad. She weaves and she repairs it.” Her mother was her best friend and Louise took her death very badly, being still a student when she passed away, which explains why she went on to sculpt giant spiders which were meant to celebrate her mother when Louise later became an artist. I’m a huge fan of illustrator Isabelle Arsenault and am simply in love with her illustration style, blending beautiful watercolours with vintage drawings and imagery, often with a collage effect with a stunning colour palette. She’s a fellow Montrealer and I consider myself incredibly lucky to have once been in a position to commission artwork from her to illustrate a difficult subject matter for the magazine I was working for at the time. I did so because she also has a huge talent conceptually and was able to come up with a truly novel idea to illustrate an article that was impossible to match a photograph to. While she is a genius creatively and technically she is also humble and perfectly pleasant. I have the greatest respect for this artist and am always eager to see her latest projects. This one, like so much of her work, combines beauty and high quality with a very interesting subject matter.
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LibraryThing member nbmars
This biography introduces kids to the artist Louise Bourgeois, who was born in Paris, France, although as an adult she lived in New York City, where she died in 2010 at the age of 98.
Louise’s family restored tapestries, and when Louise was twelve, she learned the trade as well:
“…Louise’s
Louise considered her mother to be her best friend, writing of her later that she was "deliberate...patient, soothing...subtle, indispensable..."
When Louise’s mother died, Louise turned to painting, sculpture, and weaving, applying what she knew to art:
“With the remaining fabric of her life, Louise wove together a cloth lullaby.”
An Author’s Note follows the story, filling in some details of Louise Bourgeois’s life. The author relates that the artist had a retrospective of her work at the Museum of Modern Art when she was 71, “which finally secured her place as one of the most accomplished artists of our time.
Bourgeois specialized in spiders, but thankfully for arachnophobes, there are few to be seen in this book. (Louise Bourgeois was in fact nicknamed “Spiderwoman” because of her large-scale spider sculptures.) Isabelle Arsenault, the very talented illustrator, instead highlights the role of fabrics and patterns in the life of Louise Bourgeois, using ink, pencil, pastel, watercolor, and photoshop to create mixed-media collages. Bright reds and deep blues dominate the palette.
Evaluation: This book has a lot of interesting information on weaving and the source of colors for dyes, and explains why Louise began to make sculptures, and especially, spiders.
I thought the narrative, while informative about aspects of Louise's art, didn't really say much about her life, which was pretty interesting, if you read the entry in Wikipedia. I especially liked this bit:
"Bourgeois aligned herself with activists and became a member of the Fight Censorship Group, a feminist anti-censorship collective founded by fellow artist Anita Steckel. In the 1970s, the group defended the use of sexual imagery in artwork. Steckel argued, 'If the erect penis is not wholesome enough to go into museums, it should not be considered wholesome enough to go into women.'”
You don't really get a sense of Louise as an avant-garde force in the art world from this book. But the amazing artwork by illustrator Arsenault is so creative, nuanced, and evocative, that it is worth perusing.
Louise’s family restored tapestries, and when Louise was twelve, she learned the trade as well:
“…Louise’s
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mother taught her daughter about form and color and the various styles of textiles. Some bore elaborate patterns; others told stories.”Louise considered her mother to be her best friend, writing of her later that she was "deliberate...patient, soothing...subtle, indispensable..."
When Louise’s mother died, Louise turned to painting, sculpture, and weaving, applying what she knew to art:
“With the remaining fabric of her life, Louise wove together a cloth lullaby.”
An Author’s Note follows the story, filling in some details of Louise Bourgeois’s life. The author relates that the artist had a retrospective of her work at the Museum of Modern Art when she was 71, “which finally secured her place as one of the most accomplished artists of our time.
Bourgeois specialized in spiders, but thankfully for arachnophobes, there are few to be seen in this book. (Louise Bourgeois was in fact nicknamed “Spiderwoman” because of her large-scale spider sculptures.) Isabelle Arsenault, the very talented illustrator, instead highlights the role of fabrics and patterns in the life of Louise Bourgeois, using ink, pencil, pastel, watercolor, and photoshop to create mixed-media collages. Bright reds and deep blues dominate the palette.
Evaluation: This book has a lot of interesting information on weaving and the source of colors for dyes, and explains why Louise began to make sculptures, and especially, spiders.
I thought the narrative, while informative about aspects of Louise's art, didn't really say much about her life, which was pretty interesting, if you read the entry in Wikipedia. I especially liked this bit:
"Bourgeois aligned herself with activists and became a member of the Fight Censorship Group, a feminist anti-censorship collective founded by fellow artist Anita Steckel. In the 1970s, the group defended the use of sexual imagery in artwork. Steckel argued, 'If the erect penis is not wholesome enough to go into museums, it should not be considered wholesome enough to go into women.'”
You don't really get a sense of Louise as an avant-garde force in the art world from this book. But the amazing artwork by illustrator Arsenault is so creative, nuanced, and evocative, that it is worth perusing.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Sondosottallah
A gentle biography about the artist Louise Bourgeois. She expressed her life memories through her art. She made a "cloth lullaby" using clothing and fabrics from her childhood. The illustrations went very well with the story, they were colorful, calm and gentle.
Awards
Georgia Children's Book Award (Finalist — Picturebook — 2018)
Nerdy Book Award (Nonfiction Picture Books — 2016)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
40 p.; 9 inches