Learning Unit
Learning Unit “Deconstructing the Wild <> Child”, about the connection of “Primitivism” in Modern Art, the development of “child art” and “child creativity”, the racist construction of “the Other” in these approaches and its traces in current art education practices, approaches and terms.
Text by Carla Bobadilla, Andrea Hubin, Karin Schneider
Introduction
The Learning Unit of the Viennese working group aims to understand if the history of the construction of “fantasy” and “creativity” as related to the “exotic” other still informs current methods and ideas of museum, gallery and art education practices (not only) for children – and if so, how these connection-points work. We propose to look at parts of this history through our own experiences of and ideas on art education for children. The figure of “the child” as innocent, in need for guidance and protection with an embedded potential of fantasy and creativity that should not be spoiled by “Civilization” is in itself a construction that underpins the concepts of child-art of the 19th and 20th century and still might unconsciously inform our own ideas and approaches.
In the construction of the Learning Unit we started with our own path to art education and experiences in this field (as artists, art historians, activists coming from different social, geographical and professional backgrounds) and followed some of the hints back into the history of the development of child art, avant-garde art and the construction of “the other” in Vienna of the late 19th century to the 1930s of the 20th century. A key figure that crossed our path several times is the artist and art educator Franz Cizek, one of the inventors of “Child Art”1, in the context of the Secession movement in Vienna:
“(…) Franz Cizek was born in 1865 in the town of Leitmeritz, in the former Austria. After his studies, he moved to Vienna, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1885. At this time young artists were responding to the impressionist movement and began to withdraw from the established exhibitions and societies all over Europe. The art nouveau movement arrived in Vienna, where it took a decidedly Austrian direction. Cizek became a member of the “Secession” in Vienna, a group of progressive artists who were looking for new expressions of form in art. Nineteen artists, including Klimt, Olbrich, Moser, and Otto Wagner, organized the group in 1897. (...) Cizek’s insistence at recognizing the creativity in children led him to develop his method of teaching not by teaching in the accustomed manner, but by letting the children teach themselves. In order not to violate what Cizek believed was an innate creativity, he urged the children to draw what they felt like drawing”. (Donna Darling Kelly, Uncovering the history of children's drawing and art, Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2004, p. 81-92)
In 1903 Cizek´s first “Juvenile Art Class” was opened in the “Kunstgewerbeschule” in Vienna; it “consisted of forty to sixty children mostly of ages ranges from seven to fourteen years although there were occasionally a few older or younger, even as young as two. They painted in water colour and poster colour, executed woodcuts, linocuts, and papercuts, modelled in clay, embroidered, and stitched applicé, working from imagination. Nothing was taken from nature and copies.” (Stuart Macdonald, The History and Philosophy of Art Education, London: University of London Press, 1970, p 341f)
… And we follow the traces and hints from the past back into the 1970s, 1980s and finally the 1990s and the present time, amazingly finding evidences of the unquestioned idea, that children will express “pure” or “embedded” fantasy and imagination and that these expressions are best described through projections to imaginary, “exotic” places beyond Europe – to use these places as projection screens for the idea of the unknown, the wild, the imaginative that might inspire and trigger the work with children.
We understand our Learning Unit as an invitation to connect one's own experiences, concepts and approaches of art education, gallery and art based activities with children with historical concepts to ask if and what kind of connection there might exist. Together we want to learn where our idea of a good, imaginative method of art or gallery education stems from and what kind of construction this ideas might carry with them.
The Vienna Learning Unit understands itself as connected to Learning Units or suggestions for discussions from the Cairo Working Group (Andrea Thal), the Kampala Working Group (Emma, Kitto), and Carmen Mörsch; we
1 „Child Art is an art which only the child can produce“ Cizek quoted in Macdonald might create together an “umbrella text”, first suggested by Carmen at the meeting in Vienna; in this context the quotes from the Viennese sources also aquired different meanings as we had the chance to ask what the construction of these constructions and European Racist imagination of colonial desires mean for the African context.
Guidelines for a workshop proposed from the Viennese working group as the activity that might be done in different contexts with the material provided in our Learning Unit.
The target groups of the workshop are teachers, artists who are interested in Child Art, art educators, people who experienced educators as children, people who work with children in creative, art based or parenting related contexts, people who carry on children art studios or activities for children in museum or gallery, theatres, youth clubs etc. or who are in general interested in the deconstruction of the idea of the “wild child”.
The Vienna working group is planning to invite different people from different Viennese contexts of art / museum education to a workshop session, to try out the material, to shape the guidelines and questions and to include more personal stories of how to approach this material.
Starting points
• We assume that our Learning Unit will take place in a group setting.
• Material that has been prepared on a table:
1. quotes from sources on art education, gallery education, Child Art in Vienna – printed on cards and prepared as a card deck in the middle of the table 2. blank index cards, every participant gets at approx. 5 blank index cards 3. yellow, blue and pink highlighter pens, every participant gets a set 4. Post Its and pens, every participant gets some 5. packaging paper to cover the whole table so that the material can be laid out on, and which can also be written on. 6. woolen threads and scotch tape on the table
• An introductory text will be handed out which will give the broad historical context of the quotes chosen and the approach of three of the members of th Viennese group (Carla, Andrea, Karin) to the historical material will be explained. The central focus of these texts will be on the interest in gaining insight into how one’s own practice is reshaped and transformed by a problematic history and reshaped and transformed by dealing with this history in a critical way.
• It might be useful to also provide food and something to drink as the workshop and the discussion might take longer. Breaks should be included by the needs of the group..
Procedure: Please follow the suggestions step by step to develop a common starting ground for discussions that connect own ideas on art education with certain historical points and ideas. Step 1-4 and step 7 are done alone, step 5-6 are collective processes: Here it might be good to agree on a time frame and may be a moderator and some roles of the discussion,
1. Step: Write down on the index cards (or a Post It) keywords, as an answer to the following question: “If you would do an art (art based educational) project for or with children, what would be your leitmotif, which you would align to what you are doing or which would be appropriate for what you are doing / which guides your practice?”. Write down every keyword on a separate card, and then put it aside.
2. Step: Take a quote from the card deck which has been prepared. Read it carefully. Take enough time for this (around 10 minutes) – NOTE: historical texts are often difficult to understand and can be irritating – this will be even more the fact as we are also dealing with Racist constructions. If you don’t want to deal with the a quote, if you don’t want to dig in the language used, please put it aside.
With a yellow highlighter mark the places which seem to be important for gaining an understanding of the text: mark, for example, words which transmit in your opinion who is speaking, and who is addressed, or something which you don’t understand, or you don’t want to understand.
3. Step: Connect the keywords you noted at the beginning (see 1st Step) with the quote. Put the quote and your index cards with the key words on the table in front of you: is there a (language based) overlap, can you spot related concepts, closeness and distances? Place the keywords and the quotes in such a way to each other as to express this relationship.
4. Step: Read the quote again. Now mark in pink and blue (the order of the colours isn’t defined!), on the one hand positive, and on the other hand problematic and/or disturbing places in the quote.
5. Step: Take a look together at the constellations on the table and discuss whether the pink and blue parts offer any reasons to change the relationship (the proximity) of the keyword to the quote. Shift the distances between quotes and keywords during the discussion as long as you think it is necessary – it is also possible that everything is always in a move, that one keyword is very close and another keyword is on the other side of the table and that this order changes in the context of the thinking and discussion process.
6. Step: Go deeper into the discussion of connections and distances between your key words and the words/terms/concepts used in the quotes. Write new Key words from concepts that pop up in the discussion on post Its and place them to the cards / on the table where ever they fit best.
Use thin wool threads to display the connection between certain quotes and key terms; fix the wool threads with scotch tape and / or draw lines in the end between quotes, terms in quotes and key terms. Mark collectively the conjunctions, the symbolic “hinges”, and the symbolic “separation bars” between the several quotes and key terms on the table.
The following questions can act as an orientation for the discussion:
Are you part of the history represented in the source texts? If not, because of what subject position do you see yourself distant from these histories? Do you think that people “like you” (art educators, child art worker, teacher, parentes in your context) some decades ago or one hundred years ago might have been part of this history? If so, did they leave you a heritage? If not – who are the heirs? If yes, how does it influence your work – does it at all? Is it a burden? Could there be a tradition to be proud of, that is for you – despite all – still inspiring? Parts of? Can these parts be distinguished from the parts you might not like? Why is this possible and how do you do it?
If you feel you are not connected so much with this history although your professional ancestors or teachers might have been: When exactly did you get rid of these heritage/history/tradition and how? Was there a break? Who performed it? Was a new beginning possible? Is this possibly at all?
General discussion points for the whole group:
How can we understand an uncomfortable complicity of (our own) history / the history of new art education and the Racist and colonial constructions that underpin concepts of free education with and through the arts and creativity? Were the insights in the workshop group homogenous, or does the material provide multiple perspectives? Do the findings show a necessity to develop different practices, or will our practice always be informed by this history?
What is the symbolic role that “other cultures” have played in education in the Viennese context? What does it mean in the present, in a cosmopolitan society and in European capitals full of immigrant families to maintain diversified canons to define "our" and differentiate it from the "foreign" and to try to foster imagination through symbols that refer to the “exotic South” as the unknown place of European desire?
7. Step: Creative writing exercise: If you feel like, use the inspiration of the discussion and the display on the table and write your own story of “Where do I come from and what does this history have to do with me?” and dedicate the story to the Learning Unit; if you (as a group) feel like, contribute further discussion questions that you developed in the context of the discussion and you think that might be inspiring for others.
Please share at least some photos of the display on the table.
„The change becomes visible in the art of Vienna with the foundation of the Secession in 1896. At the same time, they were on the lookout, in all directions, for strength and vigor: Japan and China wielded their suggestions, one longed for primeval explosions, and took up the primitive art of the N* and other indigenous people, with the brightest flame of enthusiasm. In this time of continual struggles, which were conducted very vivaciously in regard to possessing new art values, Cizek also transported the works to the pioneers of the Secession, and referred to them as revelations of elementary creative power, as authentic, primordial art on new ground in one’s own home country.” (Leopold Wolfgang Rochowanski, Die Wiener Jugendkunst, 1946)
Leopold Wolfgang Rochowanski, (1885 – 1961) was an Austrian (Vienna based and originally from today's Czech Republic) cross-over artist with inclinations to Expressionism, a poet, painter, playwright, art critic, librettist, and publisher. He studied philosophy and law in Vienna, founded a performance theater, organized exhibitions (e.g. 1908 Modern Austrian Art in Prague, featuring Schiele, Klimt and Franz Cizek´s Youth Class, 1946 in Vienna) and performed as a dancer. He supported Franz Cizek's Child Art movement and published in 1946 (the year of Cizek´s death) the book Die Wiener Jugendkunst. Franz Cizek und seine Pflegestätte (Wien: Frick). This book is the 2nd revised edition of Dreißig Jahre Jugendkunst from 1928 (Troppau: Heinz). „At this time the younger generation: of Austrian artists in common with those in other countries, broke away from the traditions of the older generation, the so-called 'Akademiker’, and founded the 'Secession' in 1896. They were searching for new art forms. Cizek was in close contact with the leaders of the Vienna ‘Secession', particularly Otto Wagner, Olbrich, Moser, and Klimt. He showed these young painters and architects some of the work of his children. There was great rejoicing! Some went so far as to say that these were the foundations of the new art education. Why go back to the Chinese, Japanese, ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, and N*? Here. was that which they sought.“ (Wilhelm Viola, Child Art and Franz Cizek, Vienna, Austrian Junior Red Cross, cited from the 1946 edition)
Dr. Wilhelm Viola, a former student of Franz Cizek (who later became a lecturer at the Royal Drawing Society) wrote an essay on Cizek´s method, first published in 1936 by the Austrian Junior Red Cross and parallel New York (Reynal and Hitchcock) and received numerous revised editions in the following years. Wilhelm Viola was the first general secretary of the Austrian Junior Red Cross (founded in 1922) and the organization supported Franz Cizek's work financially. As Cizeks himself did not publish a lot about his method, most of it's international reception is based on publications of former students such as Viola. Most Cizek quotes circulating internationally are citing from Viola's report. Elisabeth Safer (1947-2008), a former primary school teacher re-discovered Cizek for gallery education in Vienna: She published and held lectures about Cizek. Much of her knowledge about Cizek derived from being the secretary of Ludwig Hofmann, counselor of the City of Vienna for the establishment of Open Painting Courses (Offene Malklassen), who considered himself the legitimate heir of Cizek. Safer, for her part, established painting events ('Malaktionen') for children in the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna in the 1970s–1980s and founded Lalibela, the 1st “children´s gallery” in Vienna – both based on Cizek´s ideas. In her 1996 essay about the gallery she explains where the inspiration for the name came from:
“Not only to care for the child's creativity – which can be considered a kind of self-realization, so to speak – was important to us, but we also wanted to evoke in the children a worldwide solidarity. Creativity, in our opinion, should not lead a life of its own, but must be geared towards experiencing and coming to terms with one's life. The name Lalibela supported this idea of solidary creativity. Many people thought the word was appropriate for children, and well-contrived. But that is not the case. There is a place in Ethiopia called Lalibela. An Ethiopian king, named Lalibela, founded this place and had beautiful monolithic churches built in this region. Living up to its name, our gallery work is geared towards a creative experience of the world. For all that interests children, an artistic expression can be found. ” (Safer, Elisabeth, LALIBELA – the 1st Viennese Child Art Gallery. A Report on Art Education as leisure time activity, in: Schulheft 81/1996) „I have extricated children from school in order to make a home for them, where they may really be Children. I was the first person to talk about ‘unschooling of the school’. School is good only when it commits suicide and transforms itself into active life. Parents and teachers should preserve the child from transforming creativeness into mannerism, or imitation. Among the old Egyptians the illusionistic was punished.” (Quote by Franz Cizek, in: Wilhelm Viola, Child Art and Franz Cizek, Vienna, Austrian Junior Red Cross, 1946)
Dr. Wilhelm Viola, a former student of Franz Cizek (who later became a lecturer at the Royal Drawing Society) wrote an essay on Cizek´s method, first published in 1936 by the Austrian Junior Red Cross and parallel New York (Reynal and Hitchcock) and received numerous revised editions in the following years. Wilhelm Viola was the first general secretary of the Austrian Junior Red Cross (founded in 1922) and the organization supported Franz Cizek's work financially. As Cizeks himself did not publish a lot about his method, most of it's international reception is based on publications of former students such as Viola. Most Cizek quotes circulating internationally are citing from Viola's report. „As we were writing this book, we were surrounded by Cuban palm trees. While in Palm Book I the texts are complemented by drawings of palms, in this book – Palm Book II – one sees photos of objects that found their way into our Chinese basket during our art education project in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. In the course of our five-month project, this set of educational tools became La Canasta Cubana, the Cuban basket.” (Palm Book II, 2014, p. 5)
„[On the method of Canasta Cubana:] The original idea is for everyday objects to inspire visitors to approach art in an unusual, inventive and imaginative way.” (The Assignments, in: Palm Book II, 2014, p. 40)
„A further component was the fact that we had little insight into the Cuban system and into the social and political realities there. Being consciousness of myself as a “Western” educator in a land that was mostly foreign to me, I had to face many (self-critical) questions. What importance can our work have for the museum and for the people participating in what we had to offer? What can a productive cooperation for all sides look like? The voices of the educators on-site are going to be included in my article.” (Sara Hossein, Questions and research, in: Palm Book II, 2014, p. 27)
Other than the 2nd edition of The Palm Book, which was issued in 2007 as a copy of the first edition from 1991, Das Palmenbuch 2 / The Palm Book 2 / E Libro de Palmas 2 was devised as a sequel of the first book. It is edited by Barbara Putz-Plecko, Heiderose Hildebrand, and Sara Hossein in 2014 and it reports and reflects on the art education activities of Hildebrand and Hossein in Cuba and how the classical method of this strand of gallery education, the Chinese Basket, was adapted according to the Cuban context. Das Palmenbuch / The Palm Book was published 1991 as a collection of short essays and statements reflecting on basic methodological and theoretical attitudes for „visitor oriented work“ in museums. The editors were Heiderose Hildebrand and Eva Sturm, both co-founders of a new strand of gallery education, claiming artistic strategies for its working methods, and groups like Hummingbird Fly and StörDienst. The 2nd edition of the book was presented at Documenta XII in 2007; the report on the booklaunch reads:
„Due to its enduring popularity among experts, this teaching aid for museum education and art mediation from 1991 has just been reprinted in a revised edition. Virtually identical to the first Palm Book, the contents have lost nothing of their topicality and relevance in the intervening period. In simple, accessible language the books eruditely sets out its arguments and proposals for breaking down the usual inhibitions associated with the museum as an institution. It owes its title, The Palm Book, to Heiderose Hildebrand’s and Eva Sturm’s decision to leaven the rather dry text for readers with drawings of palms. The illustrations are part of a collection by the media theorist Christoph Eiböck who over a number of decades has been asking people he encounters in his daily life – be it on the tram, at the snack bar or at a concert – to draw palms for him. This collection of sketches perfectly reflects the various creative opportunities offered by the palm and also serves as a metaphor: The variety of visual concepts of a palm highlights the diversity of perspectives from which an art work can be viewed. As Heiderose Hildebrand commented insightfully: 'People often think that they are drawing THE palm, but, of course, there is no such thing as THE palm!'” (www.documenta12.de) „SH: Why is the Chinese Basket called 'Chinese basket?' / HRH: I came up with the name. There’s that saying: “It’s Chinese to me,” or “That’s Greek to me.” I picked up on this expression. I worked for a long time at the Museum of Modern Art, back then referred to as the Liechtenstein Palace. For many school classes, a visit to the museum was an impressive but also disconcerting experience. Among other things, the architecture of the Baroque building combined with the modern art could have an intimidating and confusing effect. I wanted to help the students overcome this, by offering them simple, stimulatingly familiar but also puzzling objects. With the help of these, they could associatively connect with the artwork. They choose these objects out of a basket that I bought in China in 1980. This was the birth of the 'Chinese basket.' […] SH: Maybe you should re-name the Chinese basket now…hasn’t the term 'It’s Chinese to me' become obsolete today, because we live in a totally globalized world? / HRH: Yes. That’s right. Times have changed. Now, the method is called La Canasta Cubana, 'the Cuban basket.' / SH: But why another country again? / HRH: We happen to be in Cuba at the moment. And, I also found objects for the new basket here. The new name indicates a new contextualization. But what’s behind it is a changed understanding of 'familiar' and 'unfamiliar'.” (Talk Sara Hossein and Heiderose Hildebrand, A New Name, in: Palm Book II, 2014, p. 22ff.)
Heiderose Hildebrand is one of the most relevant finding personalities of new gallery art education methods in Austria of the late 1980s/early 1990s. Especially art based methods of gallery education were created by her or inspired by her. The name of one of these methods (used in the Museum of Modern Art, Vienna until at least 2008) was the 'Chinese Basket'. In a recent publication on her methods (The Palm book II) she was interviewed by Co-author, art educator Sara Hossein on the name 'Chinese Basket'. As the talk took place in Cuba on the occasion of Hildebrand´s and Hossein´s gallery education program in Havanna, the question is brought up whether to rename the method … „Und will man selbst auf der Bühne stehen, gibt es die OPEN STAGE - Dschungel puts on the red shoes oder die Theaterwild:Werkstatt Wildwechsel, in der ein Jahr lang mit anderen 16- bis 22-Jährigen gemeinsam ein Stück entwickelt wird. Für alle ist etwas dabei - sei es als ZuschauerInnen oder als Partizipierende. Ob Abenteuernächte, Workshops oder eine der Theaterwild:Werkstätten, in denen Kinder, Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene sich unter der Leitung von erfahrenen RegisseurInnen und ChoreografInnen einmal die Woche mit Tanz, Text, Spiel und Performance auf lustvolle und spielerische Weise beschäftigen und einen Zugang zu den unterschiedlichsten Formen von darstellender Kunst entdecken können.” (Website Dschungel Wien, www.dschungelwien.at)
DSCHUNGEL WIEN (Jungle Vienna), Theater for Young Audiences exists since 2004 in the MuseumsQuartier Wien (MQ), Vienna. On the homepage of the MQ it describes itself as a "theater for young audiences, an open center for children, families, teens, and young adults. It is hub of art and culture for young audiences, offering productions for age groups ranging from nine months to young adult". As far as we know there is no self-explanation why it is named "jungle".
The "OCEAN" is the toddlers area of the ZOOM children-museum in the MuseumsQuartier Wien (MQ) in Vienna. This is how it is presented on the MQ homepage: "ZOOM is a children's museum offering lots of cool things waiting to be discovered. It encourages kids to ask, touch, investigate, feel, and play to their heart's content. When kids come here, they use all of their senses to explore the world - either by themselves or in little teams. They zoom in on objects and situations in their own individual way and discover themselves and their abilities in the process".
On the Zoom homepage the Ocean is described like this: "A colorful and diverse realm for play and adventure for children from 8 months to 6 year. We take play seriously at ZOOM Children’s Museum. That is why ZOOM offers a special place for young children with various play activities especially designed to stimulate young children’s motor skills and cognitive and social abilities. Haptic stimuli, colorful objects, inclined planes, a water mattress and a tunnel of mirrors hone the perception and differentiation skills of toddlers and young children". 'Hummingbird fly' [Kolibri flieg] is the name of a group (active around 1986-1992) of young artists with relation to the gallerist Heiderose Hildebrand who conducted the first gallery education activities in the Museum of Modern Art, Vienna, that followed an experimental approach deploying artistic methods. In the group´s publication Hildebrand explains what inspired the group´s name.
„Why the name HUMMINGBIRD FLY [Kolibri flieg]? ‘Hummingbirds, those are the hot-colored words that fly around in the flaming jungle sun,’ says Vinzenz in Robert Musil’s Vinzenz und die Freundin bedeutender Männer. In the course of preparing for the project, we searched for a symbol for the concept of imagination, for the determined undetermined as well as the undetermined determined. To us, a hummingbird – this exotic, small, colorful bird, that performs whirling flights and feeds on delicate things – seemed a very fitting visual expression for our project.” (Hummingbird Fly. An Educational Project in the Framework of the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna, Liechtenstein Palace, Vienna, Pedagogical Service of the Federal Museums, 1987) „Every child in the Juvenile Art Class, whatever his profession may be later in life, has been given the opportunity to be creatively active. The child can use this creative faculty in every activity of his future life. In every profession we need today actively creative people, not imitators or automata. […] To avoid misunderstanding: Cizek regards himself not as a psychologist, a sociologist, or an educationist, but as a creator. He is undoubtedly also an educator as is every great artist, and an artist as every real educator at least should be. Our whole school problem would be solved if all teachers were artists [...], instead of, often merely mechanical instructors: in other words, a teacher should not be a bureaucrat. It will be said that not every teacher can be a Cizek. I agree, Cizek is a unique creator, but he shows the world what an educator can be. [...] Cizek regards himself, as we have said, only as a creator. Since 1925 he has not painted a single picture; presumably because he believes that the artistic culture of the people is essentially more important than exhibiting a dozen or more pictures. He holds also that the present age is entirely unfavorable to art. In his opinion in the place of present-day art an entirely new art will come into being. [... F.C.:] 'The Juvenile Art Class is not a school, it is a work centre to which the children come of their own free will and where they can work just as their talents and inclinations prompt them.'” (Wilhelm Viola, Child Art and Franz Cizek, 1946)
Dr. Wilhelm Viola, a former student of Franz Cizek (who later became a lecturer at the Royal Drawing Society) wrote an essay on Cizek´s method, first published in 1936 by the Austrian Junior Red Cross and parallel New York (Reynal and Hitchcock) and received numerous revised editions in the following years. Wilhelm Viola was the first general secretary of the Austrian Junior Red Cross (founded in 1922) and the organization supported Franz Cizek's work financially. As Cizeks himself did not publish a lot about his method, most of it's international reception is based on publications of former students such as Viola. Most Cizek quotes circulating internationally are citing from Viola's report. „By the way, another opinion of Cizek’s is, that. there is a relationship, even an absolute parallel, between the art of the ancients and primitives and the art of the child. Only with the ancients and primitives there is no break in creative power at the age of puberty. Cizek believes that the unbroken art of the primitives is due to the fact. that they are not spoiled by schools. It is a fact not to be denied that, many city children lose their creative ability in drawing and painting in the years of puberty. (Rural teachers have however, assured me that they have not noticed this phenomenon with peasant children.) Might it not be an explanation that puberty, that period of struggle, so absorbs the whole of the adolescent's being, that. nothing is left for creative activity?” (Wilhelm Viola, Child Art and Franz Cizek, 1946)
Dr. Wilhelm Viola, a former student of Franz Cizek (who later became a lecturer at the Royal Drawing Society) wrote an essay on Cizek´s method, first published in 1936 by the Austrian Junior Red Cross and parallel New York (Reynal and Hitchcock) and received numerous revised editions in the following years. Wilhelm Viola was the first general secretary of the Austrian Junior Red Cross (founded in 1922) and the organization supported Franz Cizek's work financially. As Cizeks himself did not publish a lot about his method, most of it's international reception is based on publications of former students such as Viola. Most Cizek quotes circulating internationally are citing from Viola's report. „The childhood of peoples and the childhood of art repeat atavistically in every human life. Carefully guided, they again become material art, as with each native group of peoples, whose instinctive art production we admire in ethnographic museums. […] With a variation on Rousseau’s claim that humans are good from birth on, one could say that each human is born an artist. This is the true linchpin of a movement directed at general art education. The goal is to preserve, in each person for the later life, that original piece of an artist which is mostly stifled by schools.”
“The modern problem of art education has as its objective the finding of bridges that will lead to the understanding of High Art. We don’t just need well-trained eyes, but also well-tuned souls, gifted at grasping fine works. We believe it is, above all, the task of girls and women, in the scope of their individual personalities and the domestic domain, to ensure the expression of an aesthetically enhanced culture and a disciplined sense of taste that is the precedent of every high-aiming nurturing of art.” (Lux, Joseph August, KUNSTSCHAU - WIEN 1908, darin Abschnitt “VI. Häusliche Kunstpflege” [zu Abteilung von Cizeks Kinderkunstklasse innerhalb der Kunstschau 1908], in: Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, BAND XXIII, 1908/09) „The leitmotiv [of] the first ‘art show’ ['Kunstschau', 1908] was: to offer an art of living. To show that the barricades had fallen, that for decades had separated life from art. And that these no longer led a separate existence. A carnival of zest for life, the necessities had been situated by the art-exhibiting public. A splendidly enhanced authenticity, truth and beauty of once more turning towards life. […] Art for the child, with works of ‘The Child’s’ according to Professor Czizek’s methods, which since then has conquered the world. That means the way the child draws, paints, models, forms, before the teacher has a chance to distort his natural perspective. [...] A little cabinet contained decorative paintings of a strange kind. Ludwig Hevesi christened it the ‘wild cabinet’. And within the art group itself there emerged warning voices, one should not irritate highly favorable critique and the public by such ‘savageness’.” (Berta Zuckerkandl, Als die Klimtgruppe sich selbstständig machte. Erinnerungen anläßlich der Kunstschau, Neues Wiener Journal, 10.IV.1927, S. 8)
“A room with works ‘of the child’ (Professor Czizek) [...] The child, as s/he draws, paints, models, even builds, before the art teacher has driven these natural arts out of him. [...] Also, a ‘wild cabinet’ is not missing. The wildest of them all is Kokoschka, and one expects a great deal from him in the Vienna Workshop.” (Ludwig Hevesi, Kunstschau 1908 (31. Mai 1908), in: Altkunst - Neukunst - Wien 1894 – 1908, Vienna, 1909)
Berta Zuckerkandl-Szeps (1864, Vienna – 1945, Paris) was an Austrian writer, journalist, and critic. From end of the 19th century until 1938, she led an important literary salon in Vienna, frequented by many famous Viennese artists and personalities including Gustav Klimt, Gustav Mahler and Arthur Schnitzler. In the quoted newspaper article she recalls an exhibition from the year 1908 celebrating Gustav Klimt ... [... D]as Zeichnen beginnt ebenso früh wie das Sprechen, dem es als Ergänzung dient. Die „zeichnende Gebärde“ spielt bei Leuten, die sich nicht recht ausdrücken können, eine große Rolle. Der Wilde, der mir ein gehörntes Tier beschreiben will, zeichnet dessen Hörner pantomimisch in die Luft, indem er die Hände über den eigenen Kopf erhebt. Das ist das erste Lallen der Zeichenkunst. Und wenn das nicht genügt, wird sofort in den Sand gezeichnet. Der Wilde und das Kind haben in ihrer Kunst viel Ähnliches, und zwar findet sich bei beiden mancher „moderne“ Zug. Wenn Böcklin mit Vorliebe Gedächtnisbilder zeichnet, so ist das Kind, wie der Wilde, ein kleiner Böcklin. Das Kind, sagt Groos, sträubt sich geradezu nach der Natur zu zeichnen. Es hat, wie der Wilde und wie Puvis de Chavannes, den Trieb zum Stilisieren. Freilich gehen sie alle mitunter zu weit. In Böcklins „Tritonenfamilie“ ist das kleine Fräulein in hohem Grade naturunwahr. Auf den Zeichnungen, die uns der vorgeschichtliche Mensch hinterlassen hat, kommen an den Objekten sogar Details vor, die allerdings an ihnen vorhanden, aber beim Zeichnen gewiß nicht zu sehen waren. (Ludwig Hevesi, “Das Kind als Künstler" (26. April 1902), zitiert nach Altkunst - Neukunst - Wien 1894 - 1908 (1909), S. 449f)
“The wild creature and the child have many similarities in their art, and in both there are certain “modern” tendencies. If Böcklin prefers to draw memory images, then the child, like a wild creature, is a little Böcklin. The child, says Groos, balks at drawing nature exactly as it is. S/he has, like the wild creature and like Puvis de Chavannes, the urge to stylize.” “It is proof that the reputable cave dweller drew from memory. And some children in our exhibition have also acted accordingly. [...] As with the first people using art, so too the child has the greatest difficulties with certain primitive things. For example, a very tricky part, the so-called perspective, where nature is apparently mistaken and has not been reprimanded by its Mama. 'That bench is standing crookedly,' the child notes while drawing, 'but I’m not going to do it like that.' That is exactly how the ancient Egyptian painters expressed themselves, when the bench was crooked. It is literally touching to see how the child strives to get around the perspective, by placing things next to each other, or tries to overcome it, by developing everything upwards. On one occasion, s/he draws a whole avenue with trees and lampposts, which have an odd tendency to get smaller and smaller going backwards. “It goes downwards” is the pretext of the child, as it saddles unhelpful nature with an excuse. And other abstractions make of the child a little Ancient Egyptian.” (Ludwig Hevesi, “Das Kind als Künstler" (26. April 1902), zitiert nach Altkunst - Neukunst - Wien 1894 - 1908 (1909), S. 449f) “The enfant terrible, here, is Kokoschka. Since a premature success (he sold everything he exhibited on the very first day) can adversely affect some boys, it is pedagogically sound to step on the brakes. So, Mr. Kokoschka, your Gobelin designs are hideous: Oktoberfest field, raw Indian art, ethnographic museum, Gauguin gone crazy – what do I know. And despite this, I can’t help myself: I haven’t seen a more interesting debut in ages. This enfant terrible is indeed a child, absolutely not a poser, no – he’s a good boy. He even explained to me, with a naiveté strange for this day and age, the meaning of his pictures. And while I was listening to him [...] I said to myself inwardly: Here is something genuine and fresh, something elementary, that itches to be expressed [...] But I have to remember the name Kokoschka. Because someone who behaves so cannibalistically at twenty-two can possibly become a very original artist to be taken seriously at the age of thirty.” (Muther, Richard, Die Kunstschau, in: Die Zeit, Wien, Jg. 7, 1908, Nr. 2049 v.6.Juni, S. 1-2 (Schweiger, S. 74). Zitiert nach: Else Lowitzer-Hönig, Diplomarbeit, Die frühen Porträts von Oskar Kokoschka)
„In dieser Kunstschau sah man zum ersten Mal Arbeiten von Oskar Kokoschka, einem ganz jungen Menschen. Er war uns anfangs eine rechte Verlegenheit. Klimt sagte, dass er begabt sei. Man wollte es aber erst gar nicht glauben, und meinte, ein Wilder habe das gemalt“ (Stefan, Paul, Das Grab in Wien. Eine Chronik 1903-1911, Berlin 1913, S. 108 (Schweiger, S 68), Zitiert nach: Else Lowitzer-Hönig).
„Als Kuriosum endlich sei der blutjunge Oskar Kokoschka genannt, ein noch arg verwildertes Talent, das auf den Bahnen van Goghs und Gauguins sich weitertastet und von einem Extrem ins andere taumelt. Hier wird alles auf die Gewinnung von Selbstzucht ankommen. Kokoschka ist der Einzige, dem man redlich wünschen möchte, dass es ihm gelänge, Klimt zu finden: auf dass er aus seinem barbarischen Hässlichkeitstaumel zu einem gereinigten Formgefühl erwache“. (Servaes, Franz, Ein Streifzug durch die Wiener Malerei, in: Kunst und Künstler, Berlin, Jg.9, 1910/11, S. 595 (Schweiger, S. 128), . Zitiert nach: Else Lowitzer-Hönig). “Tasks of the Youth Art Class of the Arts and Crafts School in Vienna: 1. Cultivating the artistic expression in childhood. 2. Promoting the organic growth of children’s designs. 3. Developing the innate expression and creative facilities of all children for the benefit of the entire people (traditional art education). 4. Consumer education by self-developing a feeling for and understanding of works of art. 5. Preliminary step for studying handicraft and fine art. 6. Research facility for art beginnings and early art. 7. Further training for parents, art teachers and creators through lectures, exhibitions, guided tours and publications.” (Cizek, Franz, Die Aufgaben der Jugendkunstklasse der Kunstgewerbeschule Wien, Lecture, June 1930, quoted in: Elisabeth Safer, Cizeks Lebenswerke – die Wiener Jugendkunstklasse, Lecture at ISSA Interdisciplinary Study + Service Society Austria, Academy of Holistic Art Therapy, 2006) “Children grasp the world and how it works through their own childlike discovery process. Children must be given the opportunity to rediscover and reinvent the world for themselves: understanding means inventing! [...] The children could express themselves as children – pursue their wishes, needs and tendencies, uninfluenced by the expectations and wishes of parents and teachers. We supervisors were left with the noble and delicate task of sensing the direction the child wanted to expand in, and then offering the related activities and materials, and as much as possible deactivating adult influences. These formative art encounters in childhood contribute to experiencing art as a type of human language and means of expression in one’s own life, and developing a system of coordinates for art in the respective child, which s/he can apply, in later years, to put other encounters with art into perspective. […] 'The hand sees more than the eye' refers to the painting, drawing, forming hand. The meaningful confrontation with an artwork enables the child an immediate, felt access to that artwork. The child engages in a nonverbal dialogue with the artwork and experiences the art with her/his body. […] Letting kids discover, teaching them playfully to understand, giving them visual means of expression as an important form of language, in which the children, their curiosity and desire to explore the artworks and their message, is not buried, but to motivate them also as adolescents and adults for these sometimes demanding discoveries, should be the objective of everyone who does not view museums as merely storage places of artistic expression.” (Elisabeth Safer, Begreifen heisst Erfinden, Palais Liechtenstein – Museum of Modern Art (publisher.), Vienna 1991)
Elisabeth Safer (1947-2008), a former primary school teacher re-discovered Cizek for gallery education in Vienna: She published and held lectures about Cizek. Much of her knowledge about Cizek derived from being the secretary of Ludwig Hofmann, counselor of the City of Vienna for the establishment of Open Painting Courses (Offene Malklassen), who considered himself the legitimate heir of Cizek. Safer, for her part, established painting events ('Malaktionen') for children in the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna in the 1970s–1980s and founded Lalibela, the 1st “children´s gallery” in Vienna – both based on Cizek´s ideas. “To me, the most valuable and endearing (international) recognition came from America. One day, at an Indian reservation, the teacher explained to his students – he taught 3,000 of them – that, in previous times, Indians had done their own art, that this autochthonous art was repressed by the Europeans – and Indian children were forced to draw and copy objects, like European children, in a clean and precise way. But now a man in Europe stood up, who freed the children of this boring task and gave them the right to free artistic expression. He discovered in the children an ability to create forms, so that from then on, they would continue to reflect once again upon themselves artistically. This freedom gave the Indian children the possibility, stemming from their Indian souls, to create, so that they no longer had to feel like slaves of another culture, but could recall the innermost life of their souls. This statement was met, by the whole multitude of boys, with unified loud cries to write this man a letter and thank him. Indeed, in the Canadian Red Cross Junior magazine, there was an open letter of thanks to me, whereby 3,000 children from a Canadian Indian reservation thanked me for what I did for all the children in the world. ‘We are writing to you to thank you for all the help that you gave, not only Viennese children, but children all over the world. As proof of our gratitude, we, the Indian children of the lnkameep School, are sending you pictures that we ourselves painted.’ Some drawings accompanied this letter. This was for me, who was did not have any natural sense for medals and awards worth mentioning, the most precious thing ever said to me from a really competent source.” (aus: Cizek, Franz: Curriculum Vitae, Manuskript 1926-1945, Wiener Stadt und Landesbibliothek, Handschriftenslg, Cizek Archiv Wien. Zitiert nach Laven 2006, S. 109) „In his book, The Rise of Our East African Empire, published in London in 1893, Frederick Lugard, one of Britan’s most celebrated and influential colonial administrators, famously asserted:
'The African holds the position of a late-born child in the family of nations, and must as yet be schooled in the discipline of the nursery.'
Just to be clear: there was no expectation that this so-called ‘schooling’ would result in a progression to “adulthood” for Africans. As Lugard and his colleagues envisioned it, Africans’ position within this social hierarchy was wholly static, and unavoidably so. Remarks Lugard makes elsewhere in the book, a few paragraphs prior to the famous quotation make this, I think, abundantly clear.“
(Quote from: Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, paper presented at the conference Wem gehört das Museum?, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, 18 - 20 January 2017)