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August 24, 2006

Kids on art

Scene: the kids, Bestemor and I are in the national gallery. Me, wheeling Britta past a haystack painting by Claude Monet and her yelling “that way!” I wheel her into the next salon. Oh, a Gainsbourgh! Britta rocks her stroller back and forth, “let’s go!” So I experience the national gallery on speed, but hey, Edinburgh is a huge hub for international art that I never knew about and at least I’m glimpsing a little bit of it.

In the next salon Bestemor and I switched kids. I showed Karsten a Rembrandt self portrait. “Karsten, Rembrandt was the most famous Dutch master.” Karsten says, “Dutch Master?” like I’ve finally said something interesting. It clicks, I know what he’s thinking, “Jedi Master.” Whatever it takes to make art more interesting to a 5 year old!

We saw a sign advertising the Van Gogh exhibit. Karsten had been there yesterday with Bestemor so he said, “there’s the tree picture we saw yesterday.” Bestemor and I were happy to know the gallery hopping is sinking in.

Before we left the gallery Bestemor suggested I run upstairs and view the small collection of renaissance triptychs. Karsten wanted to come with me mainly because the stairs looked fun to climb, but when we got to the top he was fascinated with the religious themed works. Paintings of a bloody Christ just coming off the cross, an empty tomb, angels, John the Baptist, etc. Suddenly all of those nice Sunday School stories seemed much more fascinating and real to him. I explained how the nails were driven into Christ's hands so he could be nailed to the cross. Grisly yes, but accurate.

Posted by jana at August 24, 2006 4:56 AM