A Whole World of Art: A time-travelling trip through a whole world of art

By Author / Illustrator

Sarah Phillips, Dion Mehaga Bangun Djayasaputra

Genre

Non Fiction

Age range(s)

Publisher

Quarto Publishing PLC

ISBN

9780711265363

Format

Hardback

Published

21-09-2023

Synopsis

This beautifully illustrated book seeks to tell children the true, diverse and decolonised story of art around the world. Even before they could write, people were telling stories with pictures. And though art is universal, the story we know about it is not.

A Whole World of Art opens your eyes to a global view of art by taking you on a whirlwind tour around the world and through time. With two companions - a boy and a girl - travel through 25 destinations from the history of art, circling the globe. As they travel, they explore the rich visual canon from each culture they visit through looking at different key works and examine the lives of the artists who created them.

Each spread shows a stunning, edge-to-edge illustrated scene from art history portraying an artist or artists making important artwork within a detailed background. A paragraph of introductory text and small captions around the page give fascinating details about the artists and the time and place in which they lived. Art project ideas provide inspiration throughout. Visit:

Athens, Greece (450 BCE), where you will marvel at the gleaming gold statues and marble architecture;

The Ming Dynasty, China (1368-1644), where you will discover intricate designs, drawings and calligraphy on paper and porcelain;

Benin City, Africa (1550), where you will meet the brass-casters who create elaborately detailed plaques and ornaments only for the Oba (or king);

Coyoacan, Mexico (1907-1954), where you will get to know the painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera;

Written by art history teacher Dr Sarah Phillips, who rewrote and decolonised the A Level syllabus in the UK, and illustrated by talented artist Dion Mehaga Bangun Djayasaputra, this gorgeous book offers a fresh, inclusive view of the history of art.

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Reviews

A Whole World of Art is a time-travelling trip through the world of art, taking in 27 scenes from art history and going right around the world. This book is a fascinating and a very different take on introducing children to the world of art. As we follow our two guides, Alzena and Miles, we are immediately transported back in time. Beginning 5,000 years ago with the Ancient Egyptians, each section is filled with great artists' work.

I really enjoyed how each double page spread is packed full of beautiful illustrations along with easily digestible text to describe the art, the artist and the period of time. I also liked how real-life photos are included in amongst the illustrations so that the reader can gain a real sense of what the piece of art looks like today.

The book is bold and beautifully illustrated by Dion MBD and it signposts the reader very clearly. It has an easy-to-understand contents section with each period of time labelled distinctly. I liked that the book covers art from places that children may not have read about and features a great depth of diversity in the countries that are explored through the world of art. It literally covers the globe; beginning 5,000 years ago with ancient civilizations and ending with the modern art of the Czech Republic in 2018.

I enjoyed how much the diversity of art came through. Each section and time period is so different from the next. Some of the art featured includes art from Benin, Japan, Sudan, Australia and Ghana to name a few. Sarah Phillips in her descriptions of the art and the time period also reminds the reader of the journey of the art and artefacts, and the effects that the colonial era had on where the art is housed today.

Whilst the book features great well-known artists including Frida Kahlo, Gustav Klimt and George Stubbs, it also introduces the reader to a wealth of artists that are not as well known in the mainstream. I particularly loved reading about Ibrahim El-Salahi from Sudan, Daphne Odjig from Canada and Emily Kame Kngwarreye from Australia.

The book is beautifully illustrated, clearly laid out with a very clear contents page, a comprehensive glossary and a section that signposts readers to further reading, including books and websites. I think readers who love not only art but history and fact-finding will really enjoy this book. Readers can dip in and out of the book and every page offers something different and interesting.

64 pages / Reviewed by Julie Broadbent, school librarian