Cop3 presentation pdf

To what extent does aesthetic ‘style’ reflect the context/audience and/or function of contemporary illustration?

‘The solution to each new problem or calling should begin with a blank canvas and an open mind, not with the nervous borrowings of other people’s mediocrities. That’s what trends are - a search for something safe and why a reliance on them leads to oblivion.’ - George Lois

Initial Thoughts: Is it possible to be original?

Aesthetic Movement - ‘Art for Art’s sake’, focussed on being beautiful and not on concept or meaning Where do styles come from?

Are children as naive as we think? Can we go back to thinking in a child’s mind to create original work?

Children’s Drawing: ‘Through the Eye’s of a Child’ (article on the Tate’s website): Primitive Art > Lead to artists taking children’s art seriously in the 20th century.

HOWEVER A lot of artists were criticised for tapping into their childhood, being dismissed as something a child would do which is still very relevant today.

Studying and imitating children’s art > Offer a road to the unconscious.

‘Childhood = a domain of innocence and freedom’

Froebel’s 20 beautiful gifts: Used to teach children an appreciation of patterns and forms Norman Brosterman called them the ‘building blocks of modernism’ A lot of artists then began to make artwork especially for children to tap into primitivism - taught an idea that valued spontaneous expression and play

Artist’s associated with children’s art: Paul Klee - Found artwork from his childhood was better than the art he made after 4 years of art school - emotionally raw Alexander Calder - Unashamed about the connections between art and play, influenced by psychologist James Sully’s studies of childhood (1896) James Sully was one of the first psychologists to draw parallels between primitive and children’s art.

Picasso - Fascinated by children’s art, ‘when I was the age of these children, I could draw like Raphael, it took me many years to learn how to draw like these children’ - Observed his children in order to become more playful HOWEVER Jon Berger, criticised Picasso - ‘Reduced to playing like a child - condemned to paint with nothing to say’ (1960s)

The Painter of Modern Life - Charles Baudelaire (1863) ‘The child sees everything as a novelty; the child is always ‘drunk’. Nothing is more like what we call inspiration than the joy the child feels in drinking in shape and colour’ ‘The man of a genius has strong nerves; those of a child are weak’ Drawing is an impulse, a reaction, a child’s mind is more malleable than a man’s because a child has no filter, nothing to hold them back.

Can we go back to childhood naivety?

‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up’ -Picasso Young Children Drawing: The significance of the context - Kathy Ring ‘The role of drawing in children’s learning is frequently misunderstood. Even with foundation stage classrooms, where the opportunity to draw is often freely available, there is usually an adult focus on mark making leading to writing rather than communication and creativity. Yet drawing is one of the many languages which children use to talk about their world, both to themselves and to others.’

- Teaching and creativity > Is this the point where children are influenced? Where children start to lose their creativity or enhance it?

Does education stunt creativity in children?

‘Children do not naturally limit the forms that their expressions take. Because adult communication relies so heavily on spoken and written language however, schools necessarily reflect that orientation and channel children’s narratives into a very narrow realm of expressions, in effect limiting rather than broadening the child’s expressive capabilities.’

Children start to become influenced more by teachers as they spend most of their early years in education, does this stunt their creativity in favour of reading and writing??

What I want to look at next: Work experience in a school, hopefully pre-school Collaboration - Links to extended practice - Zines with playful images - Propose an exhibition, drawing for the sake of it - Interactive, invites people to play and create, enhance their inner child

Working Titles: What role does education play in regards to a child’s creativity?

Too vague?

How much does education effect a child’s creativeness?

Leaves room for argument Does education allow creativity to grow or does it stunt it?

Summary: Style/Tone of voice > Originality > Naivety, children’s art Education > Is it flawed? Do children lose or gain their creativity here?

Thoughts: Children fall into the education system and lose the playfulness they entered it with or The education system allows a child to enhance their creativity