#160 of 1001 · January 7, 2021

David Wiesner gives us a clever and visually delightful meditation on the creative process in his playful and surreal Art & Max. The story unfolds against a desert landscape suggesting the American southwest. Art, a haughty and grandiose horned lizard, attempts to complete a painting, but is constantly interrupted by Max, a collared lizard with a limitless supply of energy. With only a few carefully chosen lines of dialogue augmenting his masterful images, Wiesner employs the free-associative logic of a madcap cartoon, continually calling awareness to the medium of the illustrations. Art offers to let Max paint him, but Max takes him literally and splashes paint all over his body. Art becomes so frustrated that he swells up with fury, causing his beaded hide, which has thus far been rendered in acrylic paint, to shatter in all directions. Beneath is a smooth coat of pastel, which Max blows off with a fan, revealing a layer of watercolor. Art drinks a glass of water, which causes the watercolor to drip away, leaving only an India ink outline, which Max proceeds to unravel completely. Ultimately, Max reconstitutes his friend, and the two begin painting harmoniously side by side. Wiesner develops a subtle allegory for conflict and compromise between the formal rigor of planned composition and the joyous freedom of spontaneous experimentation. He cleverly extends this theme right into the names of the title characters: “Art” (nominally short for Arthur) implies a devotion to visual craft, and might “Max” (driven ever toward puckish excess) not stand for “maximum”? #art #max #lizard #lizards #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks