‘Art for Baby’ by Rudritara Shroff, featuring some of India’s leading artists, teaches kids about art

How early do children start to recognise works of art? Cognitive research reveals that as early as a few weeks after birth babies can begin to differentiate shapes and patterns. The ability to distinguish colours develops later, perhaps around three or four months of age. Conscious of this, Rudritara Shroff has curated ‘Art for Baby’, a book for infants composed of bold and easy to discern black, white and grey images by some of India’s leading artists. Created in a durable and easy to handle thick board, the volume comprises fifteen art works with a range of images – from animals and flowers to architecture, people and abstract forms. ‘Art for Baby’ is accompanied by a set of corresponding flash cards aimed not only for babies but also for adults: the reverse of each image gives a brief bio of each artist evidently so that grown-ups themselves can inform themselves about the creators of the various images depicted which they can translate into baby talk.

Sudarshan Shetty, Age Of Reason