Gifted Artists: A Study of Youth-Created Art ARE6933 Artistic Development Research Brief Sherolyn Rymal
Title: Untitled. Artist Gender:Girl. Artist Age: 9. Sydney, Australia. Date Created:1975. Sherolyn Rymal ARE6933 Artistic Development Research Brief Child Art Study October 15, 2013 University of Florida Gifted Artists: A Study of Youth-Created Art Theme For my Pinboard of Child Art Studies I decided to focus on children from all over the world that were age nine when they created their art. I began taking private art lessons at the age of nine and I wanted to get a feel for understanding where other children came from multiculturally and also psychologically in their young artistic development. I remember that I was considered a gifted student and took the lessons up until about age sixteen when I began to get more involved in the local high school’s art program. My Pinboard displays art from the “Illinois State University Milner Library’s International Collection of Child Art” (ICCA) in digital format. After looking at
almost 900 child art works that were from children age nine, I began researching the art in the view of Winner (1993) where she wrote about gifted children and the difference between what they see visually and how they express it differently. The time period spans from 1960 to 1989. Introduction Gifted Artists: A Study of Youth-Created Art is an annotated collection of child "gifted" art. I looked at art from children that are similar in age to when I began art lessons at age 9. During my research I found an article by Winner (1993) called, Exceptional artistic development: The role of visual thinking in which she addressed the impact of thinking “visually” has on a child. She stated of gifted child artists, "Within a few months after such Gifted children begin to draw recognizable forms, they also begin to draw in a realistic manner, capturing the structure of objects in all their detail, adding true-to-life details that typical children would never add” (Winner, 1993).
Title: During Winter. Artist Gender: Girl. Artist Age: 9. Moscow, USSR.
Title: Still Life. Artist Gender: Boy. Artist Age: 9. Asahigawa, Japan.
Title: City Hall. Artist Gender: Boy. Artist Age: 9. Asahigawa, Japan. Date Created:1969. Visual Thinking and Artistic Development The age of personal awareness in visual thinking begins at a young age according to Winner in that she states, “One becomes convinced that the arts are a form of visual thinking and that visual thinking is central to all forms of human cognition”(Winner, 1993). She further states that children problem solve as they draw just like adults and that the concept of “visual thinking” has strong implications for education and the arts. In his article, What do Children Learn When They Paint?, Eisner draws conclusions that children learn that art can be fun. Often taken for granted, children learn that they can “create images with material and that the activity of making such images can provide intrinsic of satisfaction” (Eisner, 1978). A further statement is made when he states that “a second thing that young children can learn is that the images they create can function as symbols”. A transformation occurs in the young child as a result and this changes things for them. Eisner writes, “The young child recognizes that visual concepts can be transformed into a public and stable form. To do this requires that two processes be employed. One, a child must form a
visual concept of the object he or she perceives. Such concepts usually are the least conceptually ambiguous the child can form. Thus, the most telling view of a chair, a horse, or a person is imaginatively framed. Second, the child must invent a visual graphic image whose properties are in some way related to the visual concepts he wishes to symbolize” (Eisner, 1978). As young children develop artistically, Renzulli (2013) writes about a concept that explains his view of the importance of noticing and educating artistically gifted individuals. In his article, Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness he states, “The first purpose of gifted education is to provide young people with maximum opportunities for self-fulfillment through the development and expression of one or a combination of performance areas where superior potential may be present. The second purpose is to increase society's supply of persons who will help to solve the problems of contemporary civilization by becoming producers of knowledge and art rather than mere consumers of existing information” (Renzulli, 2013). In gifted children there are several characteristic that show themselves early to educators and parents, therefore, in the online newsletter by the The Kennedy Center Arts Edge, Saraniero writes about Renzulli’s “revolving door” model in which the “three rings” have three overlapping ingredients, not in the same quantity, but they all do have to overlap at some point to maintain his model. They are described as “task commitment, creativity and above average ability” (Saraniero, 2013).
Title: My Friend. Artist Gender: Girl. Artist Age: 9. Japan. Date Created: 1989. Codd (2004), in her online article, Recognizing the Child Gifted and Talented in Visual Art, writes about a study conducted by Marion Porath addressing the ways that average peers are similar or different by investigating artistic ability of artistically gifted children. Three art educators were also part of the study and there were five major areas that were investigated in the study which were: design and composition, technique, including tonal development, representation of movement and elaboration of form, advanced schema for human figure, a
strong sense of individuality; and inventiveness. The report also noted similar conclusions and findings from numerous other studies which found that “central spatial structures used by young gifted artists, and developmental patterns also were evident in color use, composition, and core elements in human figure drawing. Artistic giftedness includes qualitative differences from the norm, such as: expressive use of line and shape, originality in composition, and sensitivity to line and color” (Codd, 2004). An unusual ability to deal with perspective was also seen in the study. Although they may display this at the same time as average children, their capability to demonstrate this skill is “more flexibly, extensively, and deeply” observed (Codd, 2004).
Title: My Chickens. Artist Gender: Girl. Artist Age: 9. Tulsa, Oklahoma. Date Created: 1960. Finally, there were a few more interesting facts that I discovered in the process of researching artistically gifted children. Salome writes in Identifying and Instructing the Gifted in Art, “Fluency in art may be determined partly by intelligence and partly by culture, reward and opportunity. This observation emphasizes the importance of identifying and providing for the artistically gifted child's development in the school” (Salome, 1974). Additionally, in referring to
Lowenfeld’s research, Salome (1974) names five major factors which distinguish the artistically gifted from the average student: 1. Fluency of imagination and expression. The freedom with which the child adapts his ability to the diverse situation. 2. A highly developed sensibility for spatial distribution and organization, often emphasizing rhythm and movement. 3. An intuitive quality of imagination. The ability to bring into existence constellations or events that have not existed before. 4. Directness of expression which manifests itself when an experience is in tune with the child's desire to express it visually. 5. A high degree of self-identification with subject matter and medium-intense feeling for the medium. It is my hope that my research brief will be read and considered along with my Pinboard on the Pinterest website. The purpose of the research is to enlighten those that have an interest in art education and educate on the subject of the artistically gifted student.
Title: Polar Bear. Artist Gender: Girl. Artist Age: 9. Kotzebue, Alaska. Created: 1971.
Title: Heading South. Artist Gender: Boy. Age: 9 Garfield Heights, Ohio. Created: 1983
Title: Sailing. Artist Gender: Boy. Artist Age: 9. Cleveland, Ohio. Created: 1960.
Title: Two White Birds in the Moonlight. Boy. Artist Age: 9. Galion, Ohio.Created:1968
Title: Untitled. Artist Gender: Girl. Title: My Teacher, Mr. Williams. Artist Age:9.Newcastle,South Africa.Created:1969. Age:9.Auckland,New Zealand.Created:1971.
References: Carroll, K. L. (2006). Development and learning in art: Moving in the direction of a holistic paradigm for art education. Visual Arts Research, 32(1), 16-28. Codd, M. (2004). Recognizing the Child Gifted and Talented in Visual Art [Editorial]. Grow Minds. Retrieved from http://www.growminds.com/TheArts/GTinArt.htm Eisner, E. (1978). What do children learn when they paint? Art Education, 31(3), 6-10. Ivashkevich, O. (2006). Drawing in children’s lives. In J. Fineberg (Ed.), When we were young: Perspectives on the art of the child (pp. 45-59).Los Angeles: University of California Press. Renzulli, J. (2013). Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness [Editorial]. Neag Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. Retrieved from http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/sem/semart13.html Salome, R. (1974). Identifying and Instructing the Gifted in Art. Art Education, 27(3), 16-19. Saraniero, P. (2013). Supporting Artistically Gifted Students. The Kennedy Center Arts Edge. Retrieved from http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/how-to/supportingindividual-needs/supporting-artistcally-gifted-students.aspx Winner, E. (1993). Exceptional artistic development: The role of visual thinking. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 27(4), 31-44 Wolf, D. (1988). Artistic learning: What and where is it? Journal of Aesthetic Education, 22(1), 143-155.