Susan Goldman Rubin – författare

Here in the latest addition to our contemporary art board-book series, Henri Matisse's exuberant cut-paper art leaps off the page, accompanied by simple, lyrical text sure to delight the very young.

Busy city! Beep, beep, beep!Jacob Lawrence's exuberant artwork guides readers through a bustling city, complete with builders rat-a-tatting and children playing in the streets. With rhythmic text and 11 iconic paintings, this book is both an introduction to an influential artist and a celebration of city life.

Since the early nineteenth century, the women of Gee’s Bend in southern Alabama have created stunning, vibrant quilts. In the only photo-essay book about the quilts of Gee’s Bend for children, award-winning author Susan Goldman Rubin explores the history and culture of this fascinating group of women and their unique quilting traditions. Rubin uses meticulous research to offer an exclusive look at an important facet of African American art and culture. In the rural community of Gee’s Bend, African American women have been making quilts for generations. They use scraps of old overalls, aprons, and bleached cornmeal sacks - anything they can find. Their traditions have been passed down through the decades. Much to the women’s surprise, a selection of the quilts was featured in an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 2002. The exhibition then travelled to the Whitney Museum in New York City. “Eye-poppingly gorgeous,” wrote a critic for the New York Times about the exhibition. He continued, “Some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art will exhibit its newly acquired collection of Gee’s Bend quilts in 2017.Rubin is known for producing well-researched, highly praised and sophisticated biographies of artists and other important figures. Through similar research, The Quilts of Gee’s Bend shares specifics about this rare community and its rich traditions, allowing children to pause to consider history through the eyes of the people who lived it and through a legacy that is passed on to the next generation.This book should be of great interest to classrooms, libraries and those interested in African American art, in addition to quilting, life in early emancipated colonies in the South, and Gee’s Bends importance in the Civil Right’s movement. The quilts and the incredible stories behind them are powerful motivators for anyone who wishes to accomplish anything. A map, directions on how to make a quilt square, endnotes and an index round out this stunning nonfiction book.

Award-winning author Susan Goldman Rubin introduces readers to the most well-known fashion designer in the world, Coco Chanel. Beginning with the difficult years Chanel spent in an orphanage, Goldman Rubin traces Coco’s development as a designer and demonstrates how her determination to be independent helped her gain worldwide recognition. Coco Chanel focuses on the obstacles Chanel faced as a financially independent woman in an era when women were expected to marry; as well as her fierce competition with the Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli; and some of her most memorable firsts for the fashion industry, including the little black dress, the quilted purse with gold chain, and the perfume Chanel No. 5. The book includes a bibliography, a list of where to see her work, and an index.

Through Edgar Degas’s beloved paintings, drawings, and sculptures, Susan Goldman Rubin conveys the wonder and excitement of the ballet world. Degas is one of the most celebrated painters of the impressionist movement, and his ballerina paintings are among the most favorite of his fans. In his artwork, Degas captures every moment, from the relentless hours of practice to the glamour of appearing on stage, revealing a dancer’s journey from novice to prima ballerina. Observing young students, Degas drew their poses again and again, determined to achieve perfection. The book includes a brief biography of his entire life, endnotes, bibliography, where to see his paintings, and an index.

From award-winning kids’ nonfiction author Susan Goldman Rubin, and radiantly illustrated by Susanna Chapman, the picture book Dragonflies of Glass celebrates the innovation, determination, and ambition of the brilliant woman artist behind the world-famous Tiffany glassIn the mid-nineteenth century, most women who weren’t raising families became teachers or nurses. But Clara Driscoll longed to be an artist, drawing inspiration from nature: from every flower, weed, dragonfly, and even cobweb, on her family’s farm.In 1888, Clara was hired at the renowned Tiffany Glass Company, where Mr. Louis Comfort Tiffany was known for creating gorgeous stained-glass windows for churches, theaters, and libraries. Impressed by her talent at choosing and cutting glass, Mr. Tiffany eventually put Clara in charge of her own staff of 35 women designers.These “Tiffany Girls” sketched intricate patterns, chose dazzling colors and precise shapes, and carefully soldered and placed each piece of glass to create stunning lamps, murals, windows, vases, and clocks. Yet their names weren’t always credited on the finished pieces, and when Clara designed the “Wisteria” lamp that would become Tiffany Studios’ most famous, everyone assumed that Mr. Tiffany had designed it.Today, Clara Driscoll‘s work lives on in museums, galleries, and private collections around the world. Dragonflies of Glass celebrates the innovation, determination, and ambition of the unsung women behind many of Tiffany Studios’ masterpieces.Includes a list of places where Driscoll’s Tiffany art can be found; examples of Driscoll’s Tiffany lamps and archival photographs; endnotes; and a bibliography.