When We Were Young: New Perspectives on the Art of the Child

A new exhibition explores the work of some very young artists and the importance of thinking like a child, opening this weekend at The Phillips Collection in Washington.
(17/06/2006 - 10/09/2006)

«(...)"I wanted people to ask themselves to what extent the criteria they use to look at children's drawings is the imposition of an adult eye," said Jonathan Fineberg, a scholar of modern and contemporary art who organized the exhibition.(...)



Paul Klee, Woman With Parasol, 1883-5


(...) Picasso's childhood drawing "Bullfight and Pigeons", which is in the show, features realistic-looking birds (a specialty of his father, the painter José Ruiz Blasco). But that's not what makes it remarkable, Mr. Fineberg argues; it's the 9-year-old Picasso's confident, playful scribble that defines the crowd in the corrida's background.



Pablo Picasso, Bullfight and Pigeons, 1890


"It's not about skill", Mr. Fineberg said. "It's about unique qualities of seeing. That's what makes Picasso a better artist than Andrew Wyeth. Art is about a novel way of looking at the world."(...)»

in Leslie Camhi, When Picasso and Klee Were Very Young: The Art of Childhood, The New York Times, 18/Jun/2006

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