Art Is Life: The Life of Artist Keith Haring

by Tami Lewis Brown, Keith Negley (Illustrator)

Overview

Writer Tami Lewis Brown and illustrator Keith Negley present a joyful picture book biography of modern art icon Keith Haring, celebrating the ways his life embodied the message: art is for everyone.

Art is life...
and life is art.

Keith Haring believed that art should be enjoyed by everyone.

When Keith first moved to New York City, he rode the subway and noticed how the crowds were bored and brusque, and that the subways were decayed and dreary. He thought the people of New York needed liberating, illuminating, and radiating art. So he bought a stick of white chalk and started drawing…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374389086
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	12/01/2020
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	48
File size:	52 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Tami Lewis Brown is a former lawyer and elementary school librarian. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children&Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts where she has served on the board of trustees for over ten years. Her previous picture book biography, Soar, Elinor!, was a 2011 Top Ten Amelia Bloomer Project selection and Junior Library Guild Selection. She lives with her family in Washington, DC.

Keith Negley’s work has appeared on book covers, children’s books, T-shirts, album covers, posters, skateboard decks, and even a watch. He is s a frequent contributor to the New York Times and the New Yorker, in addition to many other national publications. He is the author and illustrator of the picture books Tough Guys (Have Feelings Too), My Dad Used to be So Cool, and Mary Wears What She Wants. Keith resides in the mountains of Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and two boys.

Tami Lewis Brown is the author of the novel The Map of Me and the picture book Soar, Elinor!, illustrated by François Roca. She holds an M.F.A. in writing for children from Vermont College and lives in Washington, D.C.

Editorial Reviews

" . . . a warm introduction to an accessible talent." — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2020-09-29
A child’s introduction to Keith Haring.

Outlining the artistic career of an iconic neo-expressionist is hardly a black-and-white endeavor, and paring down Haring’s legacy for children over 30 years after an early and complicated death is a task in itself. Unfortunately, this effort fails to deliver an in-depth or unique look at his life or his art, instead reducing both to a repetitive and uninspired mantra: “Art is life. Life is art.” Beginning with Haring's hildhood in Pennsylvania and continuing through his life in 1980s New York City, author Brown provides a well-paced but conservative biography, with almost no personal details or thoughtful analysis of his work. Within its limitations, it succeeds well enough. The text is punctuated with a number of choice vocabulary words, good for inquisitive young readers at a variety of levels, and bookended with enough context for understanding. The book is truly carried, however, by Negley’s vibrant and (appropriately) semiabstract illustrations. The pages burst with lively pops of color, friendly faces in a diverse palette—Haring is White—and, naturally, an endless stream of squiggly lines and dancing figures. Altogether, it’s a decent starting point for youngsters interested in drawing on the walls, but a noticeable lack of nuance leaves something to be desired. Matthew Burgess and Josh Cochran’s Drawing on Walls (2020) paints a far fuller picture.

Despite excellent illustrations, does not do its subject’s complexity justice. (author's note, illustrator's note, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 4-6)

Kirkus Reviews