Review
An illuminating and at times revelatory new book.
Product Description
The idea that modern art looks like something a child can do is a long-standing cliche. However, for some modernists the connection between their work and children's art was direct and explicit. Centred on such modern masters as Klee, Kandinsky, Picasso and Miro, this book presents material from the collections of child art that these artists actually possessed as they undertook some of the greatest works of their careers. It explores the importance of children's art to key modernists from Matisse to Jackson Pollock, and juxtaposes modern masterpieces with the drawings by children that directly influenced them. Discussing the effect of primitivism and Freudian thought on some of these artists, this work demonstrates how they valued children's art for many reasons, including its naive spontaneity and celebration of the moment, and its imaginative use of visual language. In chapters devoted to Larionov, Kandinsky and Muenter, Klee, Picasso, Miro, Dubuffet, the Cobra artists, and artists after World War II, the author examines how each artist exploited aspects of child art to formulate his or her own artistic breakthroughs.
