Grandpré Mary - The Vasyas noisy paint box: how Vasily Kandinskys ears invented abstract art

For Mr. Paul Fornek, the best teacher ever. Thank you, wherever you are.
B. R.

For all young artists who look and listen with brave hearts
M. G.

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Text copyright 2014 by Barb Rosenstock
Jacket art and interior illustrations copyright 2014 by Mary GrandPr

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rosenstock, Barbara.
The noisy paint box : The colors and sounds of Kandinskys abstract art / by Barb Rosenstock ; illustrated by Mary GrandPr. 1st ed.
p. cm.
This is a borzoi book.
ISBN 978-0-307-97848-6 (trade) ISBN 978-0-307-97849-3 (lib. bdg.) ISBN 978-0-307-97850-9 (ebook)
[1. Kandinsky, Wassily, 18661944Juvenile literature. 2. ArtistsRussia (Federation)BiographyJuvenile literature.]
I. GrandPr, Mary, illustrator. II. Title.
N6999.K33R67 2014
759.7dc23
[B]
2012032800
The illustrations were created using acrylic paint and paper collage.
Random House Childrens Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

v3.1

V asya Kandinsky spent his days learning to be a proper Russian boy.

He studied bookfuls of math, science, and history.

He practiced piano scales to the marching click of the metronome .

He sat stiff and straight at dressed-up dinners while the grown-ups talked and talked , and talked .

Vasyas well-off world was perfectly polite until the day his aunt gave him a small wooden paint box.

Every proper Russian boy should appreciate art, said Auntie. She showed Vasya the correct way to mix colors on the paint-box palette.

Vasya mixed red with yellow; then he mixed red with blue.

As the colors changed, Vasya heard a whisper. HISS!

Louder. HISS!

Then louder still. HISS!

Whats that sound? asked Vasya.

I dont hear a thing, said Auntie.

Vasya listened as his brush stirred and swished. The swirling colors trilled like an orchestra tuning up for a magical symphony.

Mama! Papa! called Vasya. What a noisy paint box!

Silly Vasily! said Papa.

Stop being foolish! said Mama.

V asya painted the sound of the colors.

He spun a bright lemon circle onto the canvas. It clinked like the highest notes on the keyboard. He brushed a powerful navy rectangle that vibrated deeply like the lowest cello strings. He tossed up jagged swashes of blaring crimson and added cheerful dots of burbling green, clanging orange, and tinkling violet. Vasya painted and painted until the colors went quiet .

Look what I made! shouted Vasya.

Is it a house? asked Auntie.

Is it a flower? asked Mama.

Whats it supposed to be? asked Papa.

Its music! said Vasya, waltzing his painting around the house.

Calm down! said Mama.

Do some math! said Papa.

Heavens! said Auntie. This boy needs a proper art class.

So Vasya went to art class and learned to draw houses and flowersjust like everyone else.

As the years passed, Vasya finished school and studied to be a lawyer. He ignored his noisy paint box and lived the way people expected.

But Vasya couldnt ignore the sounds of the colors singing to him in the streets of Moscow.

The canary-colored mailbox whistling as he rode to work.

The scarlet sunset haze ringing above the ancient Kremlin walls.

An ivory chorus of snowflakes scattered on the sable collar of his overcoat.

One evening, suitably steamed and starched, Vasya attended the opera. As the orchestras music crashed around him, the colors of the noisy paint box twirled wildly in his mind. Stomping lines of vermilion and coral. Caroling triangles in pistachio and garnet. Thundering arches of aqua and ebony, with shrill points of cobalt and saffron.