There are always a few...

[fabrisse]

An artist by the name of Jake Chapman was quoted in The Independent as saying children shouldn't be taken to art galleries because they can't appreciate the point the artist is trying to make.

Yes, I'm screaming. I loved going to art museums when I was a kid. One of my most visceral memories is of seeing Winged Victory (Nike of Samothrace) for the first time when I was seven. I would beg to be allowed to go to the National Gallery or the Portrait Gallery after church when we moved back to DC, and, from the time I was ten, my parents would let me go on my own.

Field trips to The Phillips Collection or the Corcoran were high points of my school year.

And then there was the tutoring when I grew up. One of the things I had the hardest time with, both in DC and Boston, was encouraging the students to develop their own tastes. Especially in DC, the students were hesitant to voice an opinion because they were afraid either of being "wrong" (in quotes because, while bad taste exists, it's still a personal taste and therefore can't be wrong) or of disagreeing with an adult.

And yet, some of the best times I've ever had have been with preteens at a museum. There was the girl next door who had a hard time keeping her hands off the Babylonian art and tried to touch the Van Gogh's. She didn't care for Egyptian art at all and thought Monet was a little dull (for the record, I like Monet better than Van Gogh and prefer Egyptian to Babylonian, but her enthusiasm was infectious.). The group I took to the National Gallery was fascinated by the Venetian paintings and had some very pointed comments about a nude that we passed. Some loved still lifes, others thought the carved table was the bomb (their word, not mine), and all of them adored Villareal's Multiverse installation.

How can anyone say that kids can't enjoy art? Worse, how can anyone say that a child isn't human yet?

Villareal's Multiverse (it's a little sped up)

Comments

[tediousandbrief.livejournal.com]

I saw that on another community and just rolled my eyes.

The thing is that the art that he mentioned is modern art, which, to be totally fair, most people don't "get".

I seem to have been like you and my parents (mostly my dad) made sure that we went to museums and historical places whenever we could so we'd acquire an understanding and respect for things like history and culture.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

But if they're never exposed to it, they'll never "get" it. My first entree to modern art were the Dali Jewels when they were on loan to the Virginia Museum. There was something about a beating ruby heart that really made me think. I was 15. It wasn't the first Dali I'd seen, though. I don't believe it would have hit me as strongly if it had been.

[tediousandbrief.livejournal.com]

I've never been a huge fan of modern art even when exposed to it (and considering my membership with the AIC and how many times I've gone there, I either like some pieces or just get bored or strongly dislike/hate others.

But, like you said, you can't even try "getting it" if you aren't exposed to it.

At this point, for myself, I kinda look at modern/current art and go...really, that's great that for the past few decades people have been acting like just splotching paint on a canvas or crushed metal is art. Can we get to something that looks like recognizable artwork again like the Impressionists?

[eanja]

Since he's saying "kids aren't human" while having 3 of his own, I think we can assume he's just being an ass and trying to drum up some publicity.

I figure that art that kids aren't old enough to appreciate will just bore them, and they'll go find a piece they do like to look at instead. Pretty much the way most adults do.

Re modern art, the one time I went to the Hirshhorn, the only person I saw all day who didn't look vaguely confused was a two your old. He was delightedly rushing from giant canvas to giant canvas, going "Look Mommy- this one is red! And this one is blue!" I am positive that he got more out of the 8 foot white on monochrome windmill sillhouetes than anyone else there that day.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

It certainly could be a publicity ploy, and, frankly, the little I've seen of his art leaves me cold.

Your second paragraph is pretty much it. Not everyone is going to like/understand everything. Some of it is a function of taste; some might be a function of education. In no case is it a flaw of either the art or the viewer.

There's one painting at the Hirschhorn that I really, really hate. It seems to vibrate. But I five year old ran in and then ran back to his parents and said, "That's neat." I think he got the point of that painting better than I ever did. *G*

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Maybe he's worried about kids being noisy when they're bored or something? But that's a really broad brush. :/ Admittedly I didn't appreciate art galleries until I was older, but I loved history museums!

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Maybe. But frankly, I've heard some pretty noisily dismissive adults.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

With me it was museums rather than art galleries when i was growing. I loved going to the local museums and on special trips to London loved the science museum and British museum. I did not appreciate art galleries to well into my mid-teens. However to say that children do not appreciate art deems so facile to me.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Facile is an excellent way to put it. As I said in an earlier comment, there were types of art that I didn't "get" until my mid-teens (or later), but I don't think the penny would have dropped for me if I hadn't been exposed to the style earlier.

[stlscape.livejournal.com]

One of my most visceral memories is of seeing Winged Victory (Nike of Samothrace) for the first time

OMG. Yes. This! Man, that was impressive to top all impressive. And yes, I still remember it close to 45 years later.


As far as modern art goes - at the Guggenheim in Venice, there was a store-bought, drain-your-spaghetti colander with ten penny nails stuck through the holes. Nope. THAT I didn't appreciate as art, either then or now.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Peggy Guggenheim's collection in Venice is one I'm glad I've seen, but I don't think there was a work there that I liked.

There are other works that stir me to my bones every time I see them.