Master Pieces: The Curator's Game

I fairly enjoyed looking at the clues and finding the correct paintings. This book entertained me for a good hour or so one evening trying to solve all the "find it" type puzzles.Nothing wrong with this book for adults. But I'm suprised that many of the reviews say they bought it for their grandchildren/children. The review by the grandma that is entitled "LET ME SEE LET ME SEE" cracks me up. Yeah, I bet they wanted to see! LOL!Here's the thing... I don't mind some nudity done in good taste, But this book does not get a pass for children. One of the paintings is even described by the author as "erotica" and was done by an artist known to have an interest in soft porn. If you don't mind your children/grandchildren looking at two fully nude women laying in bed wrapped all around each other..... well, that's your decision. There's also a section where you have to find where the hidden nude "bottoms" go. There's a page of CLOSE-UPS of several "bottoms", then you have to match them to the correct painting. Some of these paintings aren't inappropriate at all when looked at as the artist intended because the focal point is not on the nude bottoms. But to have to search for the correct bottom... aka butt.. now that's drawing attention to a detail that is inappropriate for children. This is my opinion, but I want to put this out there for parents to decided. Grandma buying this for her grandchildren is way out there for me, but of course it's a diverse world. If you're looking for a really good "find it" art book for children, try "The Great Art Scandal". My nine year old daughter and I solved that one together. In my opinion, as an adult, it was very fun and challenging. It took us several hours of working together to figure out the solutions.I ended up giving this book (the Curator's Game) to an artist friend.

This book was a pleasant surprise. A friend told me about a game called Masterpieces that she had played when she was younger. I ordered this book, thinking I had bought the game (I didn't read the description well). But, this book has been wonderfully fun. It is a kind of puzzle book. The author takes a small section of a larger work of art, and the reader tries to guess which famous painting it is from. In the back of the book are the full paintings, with a description of them. I've learned so much from this book, and it's definitely a favorite. I hate giving it 4 stars rather than 5, but the binding glue did not hold well. But I still enjoy the book.

Purchased book for an art book club. Loved the cute art game they played at the Metropolitan Art Museum in NYC.

The curator's game of trying to recognize which painting objects come from is fun for young and old. This book might be too simplistic for an advanced lover of art, but I think that is partly the intention of the author- so that the book could be enjoyed by the 'everyman', not just the expert. Great way to introduce art to children 5-12,they love trying to find the objects in the provided paintings.

This book is just superb, wonderful, delightful and long-lasting. You'll go back to it again and again. It's the best in-hand teaching tool I've ever seen and I've bought it on many occasions as gifts for others. It's fun and engaging and great entertainment for when one is alone or for sharing with company and playing the game. It really will enhance the art of looking at art and that's something special.

I enjoyed the book

Great fun, beautiful book on heavier paper. Would highly recommend for anyone interested in exploring art history or art related mysteries/puzzles. The artwork is lovely and the writing is very accessible for high school or motivated middle school students. Would be great for a parent or teacher/mentor - student activity, especially lessons in descriptive writing.

With all due respect to [the deceased] Mr. Hoving, this book is appropriate for the 8th grade level.

Excellent little book. Although intended primarily as a quiz book ( it shows part pictures from numerous masterpieces and invites the reader to identify them) it also had a really interesting analysis of each of those masterpieces. It expands on each picture and artist in a pleasant and less formal manner. This is a very good book to start learning about the masterpieces of art.

海外ツアー、特に欧米諸国にいかれる方は、美術館で古今東西の名画を鑑賞される機会が多いと思う。もちろん、海外に行かなくても毎年のように名画がやって来るので鑑賞できるが。さて、この本は名画ファンの方々にぜひ読んで頂きたいものだ。でも外国語でしょ？　と、ひるむ必要は全く無い。なぜなら、説明の英語はすべて読まなくても、カラー印刷の名画（それも、名画のほんの一部なのだ！）がすぐ楽しませてくれるのだから。できれば、趣味を同じくする仲間と一緒に読みたい。この本は、名画の一部（それも本当に小さな部分）を見て、どの画家の、なんという絵なのかを当てる、言ってみれば名画クイズの本なのだから。クイズにされた名画は、普通の人にでも分かるくらい超？有名なものばかり。だが、ヒントになっている一部分だけで推察するには、かなり苦労する。だから、名画ファンが一緒に読めばお互いの知識、入れ込み度合いが分かるというものだ。そして、説明の英文が気になったら、そのとき辞書を引き引き訳してみればよいと思う。この本は翻訳本を待つより原書で読むほうが楽しめるはずだ。