Up with Abstraction

A LEAFLET accompanying the Guggenheim’s massive “Abstraction in the Twentieth Century” show introduces children to the joys of non-representational art. It begins with an illustration of one of Vasily Kandinsky’s jazzy geometries from the Twenties. “How do these colors make you feel?” the leaflets asks. There follows one of the juicier passages from Pollock’s Number Three. “Put your arms in the air and pretend to toss and drip paint carefully onto the floor.” Finally, a detail of Sans II by the short-lived and everanguished Eva Hesse, with the query, “What do you think these materials feel like?”

Mr. Gardner is NR’s art critic.

JG

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James Gardner

A LEAFLET accompanying the Guggenheim’s massive “Abstraction in the Twentieth Century” show introduces children to the joys of non-representational art. It begins with an illustration of one of Vasily Kandinsky’s jazzy geometries from the Twenties. “How do these colors make you feel?” the leaflets asks. There follows one of the juicier passages from Pollock’s Number Three. “Put your arms in the air and pretend to toss and drip paint carefully onto the floor.” Finally, a detail of Sans II by the short-lived and everanguished Eva Hesse, with the query, “What do you think these materials feel like?”

Mr. Gardner is NR’s art critic.