Who is the artist? - Review

Arts & Activities, Nov, 2001 by Barbara Herberholz

[TV] WHO IS THE ARTIST? Series of 2 videos/25 min./$29.95 each, $49.95 set. Level: All Ages. Crystal Productions, P.O. Box 2159, Glenview, IL 60025, (800) 255-8629.

Each of these informative and delightful videos runs for about 25 minutes, an appropriate and realistic length of time for most classroom use. They are specifically designed to teach students to recognize the works of master artists, their styles, techniques, compositions and subject matter. The narrator begins each video with an introduction of three artists and their brief biographies along with each of their self-portraits. Then a number of each artist's works are shown and analyzed before the viewer is challenged to identify the artist when a number of works by all three of the featured artists are seen. Each video shows us 24 masterworks. The first spotlights Impressionist artists: Degas, Renoir and Cassatt. The second features three Post-Impressionist artists: Cezanne, van Gogh and Seurat. Consultant Kay Alexander chose well-known and exemplary works for each artist. This would be a welcome addition to any school's resource center. For information about this program, circle No. 398 on the Reader Service Card.