Laura Payne

Sorry Taschen, but you've just been dethroned from being the publisher of my favourite book about Gustav Klimt's artwork. Sure, you outweigh this book by 20-odd pounds (you're tome is by far the weightiest) and you may be more complete (this is only a selection), but the presentation here is by far the most approachable. The author pairs each chosen art piece with a maximum one-page of text, which gives her just enough room to explore some of the painting's major themes without overwhelming show more the reader. In some cases she also includes an inset image for quick comparison, making her discussion that much more seamless as readers don't hvae to flip throughout the book to find referenced works (a serious annoyance of mine in pretty much every single art book. Even weaving in some alrger comparisons throughout Klimt's oeuvre, the author manages to keep her text concise and readable - a laudable achievement considering the typical rambling that academia encourages and her obvious passion for her subject matter. Besides the simple and accessible layout that initially won me over, it may be her clear lack of boring "professionalism" that kept me engaged with the text. Too many art historians strive to remain aloof from their subject matter in an effort to retain their professionalism, but this often results in dry, unengaging narrative. We as readers come here to learn, but we also come as fans who want to be inspired, so having a more personal tone really sets Payne apart, as we can see and be encouraged by her personal interest in Klimt's work. It almost astrounds me that poeple can be dispassionate about Klimt's work in particular, because so much of his subject matter deals with passion and inspiration, resulting in riotous works of art. show less

As someone who's learning sign language at the moment, I was really intrigued by the description of the book. Combining children's fiction and SL or any language learning always is a neat idea!

However, the book is nothing what it promised to be.

The signs are in a corner with a creepy anime filter or generated photo – fingers and face blur into each other, I could barely make out what the sign is supposed to show. The monkeys do not communicate through signs, it's just a simple picture show more book with a monkey child and their parent playing together. Making it an ASL book seemed to be an afterthought rather than intentional from the beginning.
But afterthought or not, at least make the signs a bit bigger and don't put an unappalling genAl filter on the model. Or just photograph someone who's willing to have their face in a book.

Adding a QR code for the signs even seems more suspicious. Where does the link even lead to? I haven't tried it out, and I won't, and I'm also not sure how this makes sense for the target group. A child likely won't be interested in watching a video of the sign – they surely prefer to watch the monkeys play. And I read to go offline from the internet, not to switch back and forth.

The illustrations are cute, but also look like either GenAl and drawn over – or illustrated with a genAl filter smoothed over afterwards. Looking up the illustrator and author didn't help, as they don't seem to exist.

Unfortunately a very disappointing read, which I don't recommend. There are better children's books out there, and all of those basic 13 signs can be found on Youtube – without any GenAl shown by real humans, no anime filters, no blurred lines.

~

Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC.
-08.04.25 show less

VG copy in VG DJ

9.78075E 12