Kunst! Forschen
Presentation of children’s book Kunst! Forschen with author Sigrid Eyb-Green and a reading by Lisa Kröll as part of the Academy Library’s Wer A… sagt event series.
Can art capture the flap of a butterfly’s wings? Does all that has wings really fly—and how did the Gothic winged altarpiece get across the Alps? Why do leaves in paintings sometimes turn blue? And can pictures work miracles?
The children’s book Kunst! Forschen takes readers on a discovery journey of the world of art and science. It is based on nine research projects currently conducted at the University of Constance and addressing issues of materiality in art. What materials does an artwork consist of? What tools did the artists use? Where did they learn the techniques they used? Who made artworks, and who bought them? Where were pictures exhibited, who was allowed to see them, and why were they sometimes hidden? What did they mean to the people of their time?
The book Kunst! Forschen looks over the shoulders of researchers at work and in nine chapters tell about butterfly pictures and scented artworks, about pictures posing riddles and pictures curing diseases, about tiny portraits and eternally young queens, about snail stairs and the quest for good green color. Stories of pictures of dots and dashes, of artworks going wandering, and artworks blocking up parking spaces: Each chapter opens up a new pictorial world and immerses viewers in a colorful kaleidoscope of artistic expressions.
The book is accompanied by an education project that encourages exploring one’s own environment. A set of cards (in preparation) provides some suggestions and translates the topics of art and research for the lifeworld of children.
The project was created in cooperation with researchers of the University of Constance’s “Rahmenwechsel” graduate program: Karin Leonhard (project supervisor), Tanja Klemm und Tilly Laaser (project coordinators), Anna Katharina Thaler, V. E. Mandrij, Denise Madsack, Lisa Braun, Charlotte Hoffmann, and Elisa von Minnigerode.
Text and illustration: Sigrid Eyb-Green
Layout and graphic design: Lisa Kröll
Photos: Patrick Green
Copy editor: Hildegard Gärtner
Publisher: Jungbrunnen
Education project: Claudia Ehgartner-Nadrchal
The book and the education project were sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation.
Sigrid Eyb-Green has headed the paper restoration division at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna’s Institute for Conservation-Restoration since 2002; in 2009, she obtained a PhD with a thesis on cartoons of Leopold Kupelwieser. Aside from her work in research, she has been a writer and illustrator of children’s books since 2011, most recently Das Wallrass (Jungbrunnen 2021), Alles dreht sich, alles fliegt (Kinderlyrik, Jungbrunnen 2018), Die Sonnenschaukel (Kinderlyrik, Jungbrunnen 2015) und Das Mädchen aus dem Lampendocht (Verlag Letter P, 2015).
Sigrid Eyb-Green at Jungbrunnen (in German), Sigrid Eyb-Green’ personal website (in German)
Sigrid Eyb-Green, Kunst! Forschen.
88 pages, illustrations throughout, Verlag Jungbrunnen, Vienna 2022
ISBN 978-3-7026-5975-2, € 25 (A)