One of our tasks in my graduate class is to write arguments for which books should receive the Caldecott medal. Here’s paper 1 of 3. Stay tuned for my next picks!
Painting a Legacy: Kadir Nelson’s Nelson Mandela
The bold portrait on the cover of Kadir Nelson’s book Nelson Mandela is a promise that the paintings inside will be skillfully rendered, and the images within do not disappoint. Nelson Mandela is an outstanding interpretation of one man’s life and its impact on the world, and Kadir Nelson’s ambitions oil paintings are deserving of the highest award for illustration.
Kadir Nelson’s Mandela
Kadir Nelson achieves an outstanding level of realism in his paintings. The large portraits of the individuals within elevate the individuals to a place of deep reverence and an attention to a realistic image shows great skill. The dedication of time required of the medium indicates the importance of the subject, but the choice of point of view is equally important. The cover, in which Nelson Mandela is looking directly at the observer is a powerful example. The low angle of the men at council is another careful moment when point of view is used to elevate an informal moment to artistic beauty. The profile portrait of young Mandela and his mother is a beautiful, somber interaction. The composition in which the eyes are gazing at each other and and her remarkably realistic hands are cradling Nelson’s head is exquisitely tender. Kadir Nelson demonstrates a willingness to take on different angles for an effective emotional composition.
Much of Kadir Nelson’s skill in realistic painting lies in his ability to recreate the interplay of light with the real world. In other words, highlights on skin and in clothing are placed so carefully to mimic photographic effects, as if we are seeing the people with our own eyes. However, Nelson’s ability to use the opacity of oil painting is perhaps most powerful in the opening image (1-2). While some might see this only as a metaphor for a sunrise, it is also important to note that an image containing a lens flare is a modern type of composition. Since a lens flare is not something a human eye would naturally pause upon, the silhouette of Rohilhlahla backlit is a view that occurs only through photography or film; a moment captured when the light enters a lens a certain way. Not only does this give the painting a modern and active feel, but it is a subtle reminder that this biography is the vision of a man through one author/illustrator’s lens, bound by time and cultural perspective. This convention is a brave and powerful one to have used for a first image in this biography.
Kadir Nelson’s ambitious collection of more than a dozen portraits is admirable, but it is his careful use of the picture book format that makes this the premier work of the year. While each oil painting stands on its own as a work of art, it is clear that each of these was meant for the sequential, guttered form that is a picture book. The images are powerful while remaining age-appropriate in their depictions of violence and incarceration. No page is marred by a significant loss of material in the center gutter. Kadir Nelson should also be commended for his subtle use of symbolism in these impressive compositions. For instance, when Mandela is studying at a table (7-8), the area set off for text includes the lines of the window, a visual hint at the jail window that will be part of his incarceration. The gray bars appear again in the close-up of Mandela in jail (21-22) and off in the distance in the field work scene (23).
This book is a true gem in the picture book world, and it is a great tribute to an icon whom we are just beginning to grieve. The images will serve as a tool for children to learn about a world leader, not in the traditional sense of an information-laden biography, but from the perspective of a man’s mythical journey into the cave and back out again with his boon, his elixir of life to share with his community. Nelson Mandela’s life story is one of great hope in the face of many challenges, and that is the narrative shared by Kadir Nelson through this book. Only thirty years ago, this man was being unfairly jailed in a prison in South Africa; now he is being immortalized in oil paintings in this outstanding picture book. May Kadir Nelson be rewarded for so beautifully capturing Mandela’s life in a book that children of all ages will find inspiring.
Nelson, Kadir. Nelson Mandela. New York: Katherine Tegen, 2013. Print.
Story Catching 
Thoughts?