DISCOVERING CHILD ART

This book brings together thirteen distinguished critics and scholars to explore childrens art and its profound but rarely documented influence on the evolution of modern art. It shows that childrens art and childhood have inspired major works of art, served as central metaphors for artistic spontaneity and honesty, and provided a window into the fundamental human qualities explored by modern artists. The volume complements editor Jonathan Finebergs groundbreaking new book, The Innocent Eye (Princeton, 1997), in which he showed how many of the greatest masters of modern art collected and were directly influenced by childrens drawings. Contributors here both expand on Finebergs themes and take the study of childrens art in new directions. They examine, for example, the influence of child art on such artists as Kandinsky, Klee, Larionov, and Miró; the diverse styles of childrens art; the influence of Romantic ideas on perceptions of childrens art; the conception of giftedness versus education in childrens drawings; and the relationship between childrens art and primitivism. The book offers unique glimpses into the working processes of great modern artists, presenting, for example, Dora Valliers personal recollections of Miró and his creative process, and new documentation about the works of the Russian avant-garde. The essays draw on art theory, psychology, and the close study of individual works of art and written texts. Discovering Child Art will appeal to a wide range of readers, including art historians, psychologists, and art educators. Contributors to the book are Troels Andersen, Rudolf Arnheim, John Carlin, Marcel Franciscono, Ernst Gombrich, Christopher Green, Josef Helfenstein, Werner Hofmann, Yuri Molok, G. G. Pospelov, Richard Shiff, Dora Vallier, and Barbara Würwag.