The Influence of Children's Art on Joan Miró and Jean Dubuffet

Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass

Theses and Dissertations Graduate School

1983

THE INFLUENCE OF CHILDREN'S ART ON JOAN MIRÓ AND JEAN DUBUFFET

Linda L. Ferrell

Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd

Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons

Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/4572

This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE INFLUENCE OF CHILDREN 'S ART ON

JOAN MIR6 AND JEAN DUBUFFET

Linda L. Ferrell

B.A. , Mary Washington College of the

University of Virginia

Submitted to the Faculty of the Schoo l of the Arts of

Virginia Commonwealth Un iversity

in Partial Fulfillment

of the

Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

Richmond , Virginia

December , 1983

Virginia Comm�nwealth University Library APPROVAL CERTIFICATE

THE INFLUENCE OF CHILDREN 'S ART ON

JOAN MI RO AND JEAN DUBUFFET

LINDA L. FERRELL

Approved :

Thesis Advisor

De ade

Graduate Committee

1airector of�adUate Studies

Arts TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ...... iii

Chapter

I. ART OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AND

CHILDREN 'S ART ...... 1

II. THE STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN 'S

ART ...... 17

III. JOAN MIRO AND CHILDREN 'S ART . 32

IV. JEAN DUBUFFET AND CHILDREN 'S ART . 52

V. CONCLUSION . 73

NOTES 86

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 96

ILLUSTRATIONS 100 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure Page

1. Gestalts which represent the probable 10 1 evolution of human fo rms from earlier scribbles . Sketches by Rhoda Kellogg from Analyz ing Children 's Art , p. 10 9.

2. Top : Sun Faces; Bottom: Suns with Center Marks . Sketches by Rhoda Kellogg from Analyzing Children 's Art , p. 81. . 102

3. Child , age five , Drawing , crayon and watercolor , 12 x 18" , Collection of the author . 10 3

4. Miro , Woman with Blond Armpit Combing Her Hair by the Light of the Stars, 1940, gouache and oil wash on paper , 15 x 18 1/4", Cleve land Museum of Art . 104

5. Miro , Painting , 1930, oil on canvas , 59 x 90 5/8", Galerie d'Art Moderne , Paris . 105

6. Child, age six , Painting, 9 x 12", crayon and watercolor , Co llection of the author . 106

7. Mir6 , Woman 's Head and Bird on a Fine Blue Day, 1963, paint on bo ard , 40 x 29", Galerie Maeght , Paris . 107

8. Child , age four or five , Painting , tempera , 18 x 24", Co llection of the author 108

9. Mira , Personnage Before the Sun , 1968 , oil on canvas , 5'8" x 8'6 1/4", Museum of Art , Barcelona. 109

10. Mir6 , Woman and Birds Before the Moon , 1947, Co lor Stenc il made for Michel Leiris , The Prints of Joan Miro , original prints : 27 1/2 X 20 3/4" . 110 iv

Figure Page

11. Miro , The Moon , 1948, oil on canvas , 28 x 36", Collection of Charles Zadok , Greenwich, Connecticut . . 111

12 . Child , age five , Drawing , colored marker , 12 x 18 ", Collection of the author . . 112

13 . Miro , Man and Woman in Front of a Land scape , 1960, oil on cardboard , 29 l/2 x 41 3/8", Private Col lection . . 113

14 . Miro , Figure and Bird , 1963 , paint on board , 29 l/4 x 41 3/4", Galerie Maeght , Paris. . 114

15 . Child , age five , Painting, tempera , 18 x 24", Collection of the author .. . 115

16 . Miro , Coiffeur Disheveled by the Flight of the Constellations , 1954 , oil on tapestry , 51 x 70 1/4", Collection of M. and Mme . Raoul Levy , Paris. 116

17 . Child , age six , Painting , tempera , 21 x 27", Collection of The Hono lulu Academy of Art , Hawaii. 117

18 . Scribbles by children , age 26 months to 32 months , from Rhoda Ke llogg , Analyzing Children 's Art, p. 29. . 118

19. Miro , Sketches on letters to Alexander Calder , c. 1958 , Collection of the artist ..11 9

20. Child , age four , Drawing , ballpoint pen , 8 l/2 x 11" , Collection of the author . 120

21. Dubuffet , Metro , 1943 , oil on canvas , 63 3/8 x 51 l/8", Private Collection . . 121

22. Child , age eleven , Painting of the New York Subway , tempera . . 122

23. Dubuf fet , View of Paris with Dog , 1943 , gouache , 14 1/2 x 11 3/8" , Private Collection , New York . . 123

24. Child , age 8, Painting of a city , tempera , 18 x 24", Collection of The Honolulu Academy of Art , Hawaii . 124 v

Figure Page

25. Dubuffet , left : Marcel Jouhandeau, Wild Buck , 1946 , pencil, 18 7/8 x 12 l/4", Collection of F. Gould , Juan-les-Pines; right : Michel Tapie , Little Show of Wrinkles , 1946 , pencil, 16 l/8 x 13", Collection of Mme . de Bonnafos , Paris. . 125

26. Child , age nine , painting, marker , crayon and watercolor , 15 x 17", Collection of the author . 126

27. Dubuffet , Table Chargee D'Objets (Table Covered with Objects), 1951, india ink , 13 x 10 5/8", Private Collection . . 127

28. Dubuffet , Paysages aux Filigranes (Fili gree Landscape ), 1952 , india ink , 25 5/8 x 20", Private Col lection . . 128

29. Child , age eight , Work representing bulbs growing underground , watercolor and marker , 12 x 18 ", Col lection of the author . 129

30. Child , age eleven , Drawing , marker , 12 x 18 , Collection of The Hono lulu Academy of Art , Hawaii. 130

31 . Child , age nine , Crayon resist painting of butterflies and plants , crayon and tempera. . 131

32. Dubuffet , The Garden of Bibi Trompette , 1955 , butterfly wings and gouache , 9 x 12 1/2", Montgomery Art Center , Claremont , California . 132

33 . Dubuffet , Cow , 1954 , india ink , 9 l/2 x 12 l/2", Galleria Blu, Milan . 133

34. Child , age ten , Painting of Milking a Cow , tempera, 18 x 24", Collection of The Honolulu Ac ademy of Art , Hawaii. . 134

35 . Child , age eight or nine , Painting of a cow's face , 12 x 18", waterco lor , Collec- tion of the Hono lulu Academy of Art , Hawai i. 135

36 . Dubuffet , Prowling Dog , 1955 , oil on canvas , 32 l/2 x 39 3/8", Private Collection . 136 CHAPTER I

ART OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AND CHILDREN 'S ART

Children 's art has been acknowledged as an important influence on twentieth-century art . Robert

Goldwater states that the interest among artists in children 's art during the early years of the Twentieth

Century marked "a movement away from the exotic primi tive toward indigenous sources of primitive inspira 1 tion." This new evaluation of children 's art as a source of inspiration can be seen in the work of a number of artists including Joan Miro and Jean Dubuffet ; their work , in particular , suggests the accent , fresh ness and energy inherent in the art of children .

The child 's way of making art , which is not based on illusionism , seems to offer possibilities for commu- nicating new and stimulating ideas . In addition , the use of various figures, symbols and forms from the repertory of children 's art by twentieth-cen tury artists like Mir6 and Dubuffet represents a desire to return to the child 's wo rld--a world filled with excitement and awe . This return , achieved through the adaptation of children 's devices , has fairly specific visual and emotional meanings ; a closer examination 2

of these devices borrowed from children will make

clearer the meaning of the work of Miro and Dubuffet.

The work of both Miro and Dubuffet uses devices

from specific stages of children 's art . Mir6 , for example , has used motifs and symbols such as the star , circle and mandala forms that appear in the earliest

stage s of children's artistic development. Dubuffet ,

in contrast, makes use of the symbols , subject matte r

and spatial arrangements deriving from the art of older

children . Because the stylistic elements found in each of the deve lopmental stages of children's art has dif

ferent emotional and iconographical connotations , the works of Mir6 and Dubuffet are imbued with qualities

and meanings directly related to the stages of chil

dren's art which they imitate . A formal comparison of

the work of Mir6 and Dubuffet to children 's art wi ll

show how these two artists have recaptured many of the

aspects inherent in the early years of creativity , and

how the difference in their choices of elements from

children 's art are used to affect the meaning of their work .

The interest of Mir6 and Dubuffet in children 's

art was not un ique , but part of a larger trend that

began with Gauguin and continued with groups of

artists as diverse as the Fauves , the Blaue Reiter ,

Die Brucke , the Futurists , Dadaists and Surrealists. 3

Even though the full flowering of this interest occurred during the twentieth century , its roots can be traced back to the cult of childhood established by the romantics. As Roger Shattuck notes,

Wordsworth , Jean-Jacque s Rousseau , Blake and Nerval reasserted the virtue and happiness of childhood as something in evitably stifled by education and society . Then , with Rimbaud , a new personage emerged : the child-man , the grown-up who refrained from putting off childish things . 2

This interest of the romantics in childhood was paralleled by studies done outside the artistic commu- nity by ethnologists , psychologists and educators . In the second half of the nineteenth century , the ethnologist, Owen Jones , stated that "if we would return to a mo re healthy condition , we must even be as little 3 children or savages ." Following him, E. T. Hamy in- sisted upon the possession of the artistic impulse by all mankind , including children , from whom we could learn much about artistic deve lopment in our species . 4

These studies of artistic development in children and primitive peoples naturally sparked an interest 5 among educators and psychologists .

In 1887, Corrado Ricci 's L'arte dei Bambini wa s published which began the interest in the art education 6 of children in Italy and Germany . But it was not just in Europe that the interest in children's art emerged ; 4 the 1893 World 's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in- eluded a children's pavilion that housed all manner of information on the education of children and their 7 artwork.

In light of this preoccupation with chi ldren and their art it is not surprising that artists in the late nineteenth century became increasingly willing to see the child 's wonder , spontaneity and often destructive nature as something not inferior to adulthood. Chil- dren 's art , along with the art of primitive cultures , came to symbo lize a type of truth in representation that disappeared with age and exposure to tradition .

Paul Gauguin was one of the first artists to praise a return to a more primitive attitude toward life and art . He sugge sted that the ideal was to "paint like chi ldren ," illustrating an important shi ft of attitude that later influenced the Fauve s and Expres- sionists , among others . Savagery and childhood were closely related for Gauguin--each representing the ability to visualize without the interference of so 8 cietal conventions. Possibly Gauguin would have agreed with Herbert Read that :

primitive man and the chi ld do not distinguish in our ratiocinative manner between the real and the ideal. Art for them is not so disinterested : it is not extraneous and complimentary to life but an intensification of life . 9

This fundamentalist attitude , as presen ted by Gauguin, 5 was espoused to varying degrees and in different forms by a number of twentieth-century artists .

Feeling that they could learn more about the essen tial nature of art from the work of primitives and children than from the intellectual elaborations of adult artists, Henri Matisse, Andre Derain and Maurice

Vlaminck collected primitive , folk and children 's art .

As the nucleus of the Fauve movement , which began around

1903 , the se artists expressed an admiration for the straightforward and undeveloped expression in children's art that gave it a combination of immediacy and remote- ness. In the desire to expre ss these qualities in their own work , the Fauves adopted certain formal character istics from children 's art . They wanted to give their paintings an appeal that did not depend upon the mastery of sophisticated craftsman 's skills, but upon the imme diate effect of the canvas as a whole. The broadening of the line , the direct application of color from the tube onto the canvas , lack of concern with the nuances of color and surface and the neglect of the general 10 finish of the picture achieved this goa1 .

The Fauves were not alone in their desire to grasp a new reality by means of a return to something basic in human development. In Germany , Die Brucke , an artist group formed at about the same time as the

Fauves, was fascinated by primitive and children 's art . 6

During the first quarter of the twentieth century in

Germany there was much interest in the art education of children and the artists of Die Brucke no doubt absorbed 11 that interest. Like the Fauves , they chose to employ a simplification of technique in order to give their own works an immediacy of expression. Ernst Kirchner and

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff , two Brucke artists , utilized a deliberate confus ion of outline and background , occasionally filled with scribbling. This was a del iberate borrowing of children 's means to give their works an unfinished and immediate quality . Kirchner is even known to have exhibited his own childhood drawings with 12 h1s. mature wor k s to emp h as1ze. t h e re 1 at1on. s h.1p .

The work of the artists of Die Brucke shows an even more direct influence from chi ldren 's art ; the linoleum block , which was regularly used in children 's art education classes at that time , was used by Die 13 Brucke artists as a medium. Tha linoleum block print provided the strength and boldness of effect desired by the se artists who were mainly interested in the basics of human character as opposed to its refined and complicated aspects.

Also in Germany around 1910 , the artists of the

Blaue Re iter group were greatly interested in children 's art. The se artists familiarized themselves with a variety of primitive and exotic arts and were generally 7 more articulate about their kinship with that art than 14 Die Brucke. In 1912 , they published the Blaue Reiter

Almanac . With Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc serving as editors , the Almanac included reproductions of children's art presented with the same importance as the art of primitive peoples. While Die Brucke and the

Fauves were influenced by the technique of children 's art , the artists of the Blaue Reiter were among the first to philosophically give children 's art a place of real prominence. August Macke and Franz Marc acknowledged their interest in chi ldren 's art , as did Wassily

Kandinsky and Paul Klee , who were the mo st verbal of the group about their admiration of children 's art.

Kandinsky felt that :

in addition to his ability to portray externals , the talented child has the �ower to clothe the abiding truth in the form in which this inner truth appears as the mo st effective . There is an enormous unconscious strength in chi ldren . . whi�h places the work of chi ldren on as high a level as that of adults . The artist who throughout his life is similar to children in many things , can attain the inner harmony of things more easily than others.lS

Kandinsky had great respect for the wisdom of the child and childhood memories were important in his own work .

He chose not to borrow technique or method from children , but was more interested in interpreting the natural environment with the spirit of a child . 8

Kandinsky 's friend , Paul Klee , is among the ar tists whose works show more clearly , iconographically

and philosophically , the influence of children 's art .

Klee collected children 's art extensive ly and assisted

Hans Friedrich Geist in assemb ling an exhibition in 16 Dessau in 1930 entitled "The World of the Child."

He also wrote many time s of his attitudes toward children and their artwork. On the occasion of the third

Blaue Reiter exhibition in 1912 , Klee stated that "chil dren can do it too , and this shows their wisdom. The more he lpless they are , the more instructive their example . All too soon they must be protected from cor- 17 ruption ." This desire to maintain a chi ld 's sense of inventiveness and innocence is of primary importance to Klee .

Klee's work and its relationship to children 's art is examined quite extensively by James Smith Pierce

in Paul Klee and Primitive Art . He po ints out the importance of line and calligraphy in Klee's work as it

re lates to a child's de light in the process of writing or drawing . Klee adapted , for his own purpose , the child's symbols , motifs , use of line and compositional

techniques . The combination of this visible influence with his philosophical statements make Klee an artist

fo r whom the importance of children 's art is easily

identifiable . 9

In Italy , the Futurists bel ieved that "only tho se who were outside the boundaries of 'rational' society could be looked to as inspiration for creat ivity , could still respond wholly to the voice of intuition and en- . ..18 JOY. a un1'f' 1e d percept1on . Their insistence on this kind of primitive sensibility , valuing what is known intuitively rather than what is learned from tradition , is somewhat similar to the attitude of the German 19 Expressionists , whom they influenced . In fact , in

1912 , the same year as the publication of the Blaue

Reiter Almanac with its reproductions of children 's art , the Futurists organized an exhibition which in cluded children 's art . Carlo Carra and Umberto Boccioni, two artists of the Futurist movement , arranged the

Mostra d'Arte Libera in Milan in which anyone with anything original to say was invited to exhibit , in 20 cluding children. This exhibition , along with Alfred

Steiglit z' showing of children 's art at the 291 Gallery in 1912 in New York City , illustrates the international importance of children 's art as an artistic influence in the years before World War I.

After The Great War had ended , children 's art continued to influence artists , especially the Dadaists and Surrealists. Though formal influences from children 's art is no t so easily identifiable in their work , the Dada and Surrealist artists expressed a great 10 sympathy for children 's art . Hugo Ball , the founder of the Dada Caf� Vo ltaire in Zurich, wrote in "Dada

Fragments" in 1916 that "childhood is a world to which hardly any attention is paid , with its own laws , but without whose religious and philosophical recognition 22 art cannot exist or be apprehended ." The Dada artists ' admiration of children 's art came from regarding it as direct expressions of inner feeling with no acquired technique to interfere--something which they wished to express in their own work . It was the child 's lack of deve loped rational thinking that attracted the

Dadaists and inspired Ball 's contention that "to sur- pass oneself in naivete and childishness was the best antidote "--a credo that manifested itself in many Dada 23 performances.

Like the Dadaists , the Surrealists ' attraction to children 's art was more philosophical than formal .

These artists , many of whom had direct links to Dada , cons idered themselves to be working with the basics of human nature . Since they valued the imagination as a pr imary reality , the imagination of childhood was especially important to them . Andre Breton , self- proc laimed leader of the Surrealist movement , felt that "the absence of all severity leaves him [the chi ld] the perspective of several lives lead at the same 24 t.1me . " Georgio de Chirico also praised chi ldhood ; 11 he felt "that for a work of art to be truly immortal , it must go completely beyond the limits of the human ; common sense and logic will fail . In this manner , it 25 will approach the dream and the mentality of childhood ."

In their desire to deal with inner reality , the un conscious , and thought in the absence of reason and control , the Surrealists were striving toward the state of mind they felt to be present in chi ldhood .

The Surrealists ' admiration of the chi ld's unin hibted creativity also led them to an interest in techn iques that would approximate the haphazard control of a child . Automatism, a technique in which the hand is allowed to move with no planning or preconceived ideas , was practiced by Klee , Masson , and Gorky as we ll as others . Using this method , the Surrealists could produce works with a linear quality much like a child 's experiments with line . Despite the adoption of this me thod of working, Go ldwater cautions against searching for specific aspects of style or content that illustrate the Surrealists ' admiration of children 's art . He ern- phas izes , rather , the Surrealists ' prirnitivizing as a 26 means of approaching a more intuitive state of being.

The interest in children 's art from the beginning of the century through Surrealism was carried on and deve loped by Mir6 and Dubuffet and became one of the most prominent aspects of their styles . Of the se two 12 artists , it was Mir6 who began exploring children 's art early in his career; his work constitutes a direct link with certain of the Dadaist and Surrealist ideas about children 's art .

Mira 's friend , Jacques Dupin , has noted that Mir6 was in contact with Dada activities in Barcelona as 27 early as 1917 through Max Jacob and Frances Picabia.

Picabia published issues of the Dada magazine 391 in

Barcelona at this time ; copies of other French avant garde magazines were available in Barcelona , as we ll.

By 1919 Dalmau 's picture gallery in Barcelona was showing works by the Dadaists. Mir6 , with his interest in

Parisian activities , no doubt absorbed much of this.

Later , in Paris, Mir6 met Dada artist and writer

Tristan Tzara and , although he did not take part in Dada activities, he attended various of its public demon 28 strations including the famous Dada Festival in 1920 .

This contact with Dada had an effect on Mir6 's work .

Mario Bucci has specified a group of Mir6 's paintings known as Grey Backgrounds, which preceded the Harle quin 's Carnival (1924-25) , in which he feels Mir6 was clearly investigating the ideas of the Dada avant-garde .

In these works , Bucci points out that Mir6 often fell 29 back on the world of children and childlike metaphor .

Along with hi s interest in Dada , Mire also had an ab iding affection for the works of Henri Rousseau and 13

Paul Klee . Rousseau , a naive painter , worked in the straightforward and untrained manner of a child. His simplicity and innocence as an artist must have had a direct appeal to Mir6 , who shared a similar disposition .

The work of Klee , however , held an even greater fas cination for Mir6 .

Mir6 was first introduced to the works of Klee through a book of reproductions that Andre Masson , soon to become an important Surrealist artist, loaned him around 1924. After this initial contact , Mir6 sought out works by Klee which he managed to see in private collections and at the Galerie Vavin-Raspail , the only gallery showing Klee 's works in Paris. Abo ut this time

Mir6 also saw the first exhibition of the work of Klee 's 30 friend , Kandinsky . This, too , enchanted him. Mir6 , no doubt , saw in Klee , and perhaps in Kandinsky , some of the same sensibilities with which he was dealing.

The need for order and planning juxtaposed with the desire for freedom of expression in a simplified personal manner is characteristic of both artists . Mir6 speaks of his respect for Klee 's analytical mind which stud ied every possible problem of painting and drawing . How ever , he notes that "the moment he [Klee) had the sheet of paper or the canvas in front of him , he cast these studies aside . Perhaps he only needed the prel iminary research to create a resistance . Everyone is swayed 14

31 by his driving impulses."

The giving up of oneself, on a creative level , to these impulses involves experiencing the creative act as does a child. Mir6 , the observer , saw this interest of Klee 's, understood it and recognized a kindred spirit in Klee . Mir6 's method of employing children 's motifs is perhaps less literal than Klee 's, but the contact with the work of Klee was another affirmation of his own direction . James Thrall Soby , in his study of Miro , even points out a certain affinity between some of Mira 's more casual works of 1929 and 32 K 1 ee I s maglc' waterco 1 ors an d d rawl ' ngs .

Mir6 's contact with children 's art through Dada and the work of Klee was amplified by his involvement with the Surrealists. After he moved to Paris in 1920 , he associated with poets, writers and artists , eventually attending meetings and exhibiting with the Surrealists .

He became friends with Andr� Breton , Paul Eluard , Max

Ernst , and Andr� Mas son . Though not known for verbally contributing to the gatherings he attended , Mir6 watched , listened and read with fascination about primitive art in all forms . The reproductions of children 's artwork present in Surrealist and Dada publica- tions could no t have helped but make a strong impression on him. Mira's opportunities to view children 's art , observe the works of those with similar interests and 15 listen to discourse on the subject of untrained art were many . Some of these same sources were also important for Jean Dubuffet. Although he began his art career much later than Mira , Dubuffet had many of the same interests as Mira. Like Mira , he had a great admiration for Klee and felt that he had taken a road similar to Klee 's in his artwork . Peter Selz. feels that

Dubuffet is the only French artist to have a full under 33 standing of Klee 's works .

Like Klee , Dubuffet was intrigued not only by the art of children , but by the art of the insane . Around

1918 , during his youthful days in Paris, he read Prinz- horn 's book , Art of the Insane , in which the author drew comparisons between the art of the insane and 34 t h a t o f c h. l ld ren and prlmltlv. . . es . Later, around 1945 ,

Dubuffet went on to collect works of art by untrained artists--art brut , as he termed it . Involved with him in this pursuit was Andre Breton . Through Breton and his friends , Limbour , Artaud and Bousquet, Dubuffet also had a link with Surrealist philosophy and techn iques. Lucy Lippard feels that Dubuffet is the heir to the Surrealist black humor , automatism and 35 suggestlv. e tee h nl. ques .

Even prior to his association with the Surrealists ,

Dubuffet was inspired by the art of the Dadaists , which he first experienced when he left Le Havre for 16

Paris in 1918 at the age of 17. Through Dada poet

Max Jacob , he learned much about appreciating the beauty of the everyday and was exposed to the Dada attitude that the common man , primitives and children were 36 the "real artists."

Dur ing the first half of the twentieth.century there was a great curiosity concerning chi ldren 's art .

Whether it was used in the search for the origins of figurative art , as a means of explaining man 's desire to create , or as a method for retaining innocence , chil dren 's art provided a rich source for exploration. This source proved especially meaningful for Dubuffet and

Miro. Both used children 's art with highly personalized results. The use of childlike imagery and the espousal of a philosophy that laud s the virtues of innocence and naive te come together in the work of each of these artists . In many ways , they represent the culmination of the interest in children 's art that began in the nine teenth century with Gauguin. CHAPTER II

THE STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN 'S ART

That Mire and Dubuffet were indeed influenced by children 's art is without question. The literature speaks generally of this influence , though the idea that Mire and Dubuffet were influenced by particular age groups of children has not been studied . Mira 's work , upon examination , appears to correlate strongly with the art of very young children , whereas Dubuffet 's work appears more reminiscent of the art of older children. An examination of the characteristics of the artwork of children in different age groups and a com parison of the se characteristics to the work of Miro and Dubuffet should yield a be tter understanding of their art .

Rudo lf Arnhe im states that the early forms of visual representation are of interest because all the fundamental features that operate in refined , compli cated and modified ways in adul t art show up with ele 37 mentary clarity in the pictures of children .

Psychologists and educators agree with Arnheim; they have examined children 's artwork and have noted that 18 children progress in certain manners or stages as they deve lop artistically. Though these stages of development have been given numerous names , there appears to be a consensus concerning their characteristics and 38 meaning.

In discussing the order of these stages Viktor

Lowenfeld 's and W. Lambert Brittain 's named stages from their study , Creative and Mental Growth , will be used . The stages are as follows :

1. The Scribbling Stage--Age two to four

2. The Pre-Schematic Stage- -Age four to seven

3. The Schematic Stage--Age seven to nine

4. The Dawning Realism Stage (The Gang

Stage ) --age nine to eleven

Each stage has specific stylistic and emotional qualities.

In this chapter , the visual aspects of these stages will be del ineated .

The Scribbling Stage (Age two to fo ur )

The scribbling stage begins from the moment a child first picks up a crayon or pencil; although it can occur earlier , it usually occurs at about two years of age . Even though this stage is termed scribbling it also includes the earliest attempts at making fo rm .

These early forms emerge from scribbles and often exist 19 alongside them. For this reason there is a close relationship between this stage and the preschematic stage which follows it. In fact , the circle , a form which first appears in the scribbling stage , but becomes more precise in the preschematic stage , is the first 39 structure that the child draws of his own initiative .

Lowenfe ld , who did early work in the field , typed the first scribbles as disordered , controlled or 40 named . The first haphazard lines , exhibiting little muscle control, are the disordered type . At this time the child is mainly involved in a kinetic experience .

The controlled scribbling occurs when the child dis covers that there is a connection between the motions made and the marks that appear on the paper . He is engrossed in this ac tivity and approac he s scribbling with great enthusiasm. Because motor coordination is still underdeve loped , the child 's crayon or pencil does not usually leave the page . This makes the line quality more flowing with few dots , dashes or repeated patterns .

From controlled scribbling, the child move s to naming hi s scribbles . The child now begins to connect his scribbles to the world around him . He begins to move from kinesthetic invo lvement into imaginary thinking.

He may announce to someone nearby that he is drawing

"Daddy" or "Mommy ," scribbling all the whi le . He usually assoc iates his scribbles with things in the 20 environment that are important to him at the time .

Simp ly by giving his scribbles the names of objects or expe riences, the child transforms the purely pre sentational motor activity of scribbling into a representational activity at a very early age . It is at this time that the transition from marking to drawing occurs.

In subsequent research following that of Lowen

feld , Rhoda Kellogg did an extensive cataloging of the early work of children . She found an entire progres sion of scribbling that proceeds from arced-type marks 41 to circular movements . She then categorized the child 's scribbles and gave them the fol lowing names : basic scribbles , placement patterns , emergent diagrams , 42 combines and aggregates . (Figure 1.) The basic

scribbles are made by children two or younger without eye control. At two children usually put scribbles on top of each other but by three years of age they begin

to be separated . The placement patterns require eye and hand control and be gin to show signs of making

shapes with more control . The emergent diagrams , which

are usually made by the age of three , use single lines

to form crosses and to outline simp le shape s such as

circles and triangles. They do not re ly on the edge of

the paper for de finition nor do they yet present clear

shapes. 21

The combines , which are two or more shapes com-

bined , are followed by the aggregates. Between the

ages of three and five , the chi ld has a repertory of

visual ideas and uses them to make un its of three or

more diagrams . He also begins to deve lop a personal

style. The aggregates constitute the bulk of the

child 's visual expression at this time , and children

never seem to tire of making them. Kellogg believes

that children have an innate preference for balance and regularity which keeps their work from becoming a 43 hodge-podge . Her studies seem to suggest that children prefer an overall balance rather than a top- bottom or left-right balance .

Kellogg points out the importance of the mandalas , radials and sun forms in the young child 's drawings .

The mandalas are usually circles or squares divided

into parts by a Greek or diagonal cross. The radials consist of lines drawn from a central point with no enclosing perimeter , and the suns are usually circu-

lar with lines radiating from the edge or inside of

the perimeter. (Figure 2) She feels that these forms

are a key point in the sequence that leads from ab-

stract forms to mo re pictorial work as in the forming 44 o f a h uman f 1gur. e.

Dur ing this time also , the child , who previously

had no interest in color , be gins using different colors. 22

However , this is very random . He will continue to scribble independently with whatever tool he has and seldom asks questions or requires input from anyone or anything around him. Predominately , his work is fancifully graphic . The linear quality of his work is exploratory and , in some ways , mechanical ; it is determined by tactile and kinesthetic activity more than by vision . The size relationships are determined by the child 's motor activity , by the medium and by the se 45 quence in which the parts of the work are created .

Helga Ing in her important study of children 's art done in the 1930 's, adds that scribbling is a form of practice which reoccur s in a child 's work even when the child has mastered other forms , and sometimes 46 even a l ongs1. d e a more comp l ex d raw1n . g . This is especially noticeable in the scribbling stage as the child moves with conscious intent from marking to drawing .

The Preschematic Stage (Age four to seven)

In contrast to the scribbling stage when the child is so muc h involved in kine sthetic and psychomotor development , the preschematic stage is one of expression .

The child serious ly begins his first representational attempts that up to now have been only intermittent .

In the scribbling stage the child discovered pattern-- 23 first lines , then dots and repetition , he now begins to build on his repertoire of forms and associates his forms with the environment.

The first symbol drawn is usually a human . It may be just a circle with leg lines or a circle with dots for facial features, and will change with each drawing.

Arnheim attributes the child 's tendency to omit parts of the figure to the idea that children are in touch with the aspects of a form that are its essence and that underlie our recognition of it. Therefore , because the human figure is vertical , children express this 47 verticality and may leave out the horizontal aspects.

Of course , within this stage the child is constantly deve loping and may add or subtract parts as it suits him. In fact , within this stage is the large st variety of forms representing the same thing. E. H. Gombrich states that each chi ldlike image or form conj ures up a thousand memories and after-images for a viewer. No sooner has an image been presented as art than , by this very act , a new frame of reference is created from 48 which it cannot escape . This is nowhere truer for the child than in the preschematic stage .

The child become s involved in portraying his con cepts or own me ntal translations of what he has perceived into some new formation or symbol. He wants to share what he has done with others , verbally and visually . 24

He may give names to the things he draws , change the names , change the drawings and occupy himself for some time with these types of experiments . At this time the child does not have such formally fixed notions as to how objects in our world are related . There-

fore , he can more easily represent things in an unusual , original and more personal way .

This personal way of representing things may mean

that size relationships are completely subjective and vary according to the chi ld 's interest and emotional

involvement . For example , the hands on a human may be drawn extra large if the child has reason to be excited about his own hands or has become newly aware of what hands can do . Emphasis is also emotionally determined .

A chi ld may represent a figure very complexly when there

is only one figure in a composition , but may make the

. 49 f1gure muc h s1 . mp l er w h en t here are many 1n. a p1ctu. re .

The way things are represented , then , is an indication of the types of experiences the chi ld has had with them .

The child 's concept of space is also very personal , caus ing his artwork to appear , at first glance , as somewhat random in order . However , upon observation , it becomes apparent that the child conce ives of space as

that which is around him . Objects appear above , below

or be side each other in the way that the child under-

stands them . This is a space primarily related to his 25

own body space and is neither abstract nor logical by

adult standards.

Along with his own personal concept of space , the

child 's use of line becomes more controlled . He be-

gins to move toward an all-encompassing line when drawing an object , although the part-by-part build-up

of an object predominates. Even though he is now draw-

ing shapes , he is economical in his use of them which 50 produces a sense of un ity in his artwork . He shows much mo re interest in making these shapes than he does

in their color. It has been shown that at this stage , children discriminate differences in form be fore dif 51 ferences in color . Therefore , there is little rela tionship between an object 's natural color and the colors the child may select for it. The child chooses color according to personal appeal and may choose his

"favorite color " for any object . Generally , the child 's use of color is determined by the color 's emotional quality for the child ; color is used for its own sake

as opposed to describing objects as they may appear

in nature .

Above all the preschematic stage is characterized by change and emotional involvement in the artwork .

The approach to art is with confidence , unrestrained

enthusiasm , and de l ight . Space , color and line all

tend to be used in a very personal way . Just as 26

objects are depicted in an apparently random fashion ,

so , too , the child 's comments tend to be loose-jo inted

and disconnected . He continue s to draw in a part-by-

part manner and mo st details in a picture would lose

their meaning if separated from the whole .

The Schematic Stage (Age seven to nine )

The schematic stage illustrates the child 's desire ,

after muc h change , for a de finite concept of man and

the environment . The schema , as referred to by Lowen-

fe ld , means "the symbo l or concept at which the chi ld

has arrived and which he repeats again and again when ever no intentional experience influences him to change 52 this concept ." The schema can be a very simp le symbol ,

such as the way in which the child will always draw a

nose , or a mo re comp licated concept invo lving the entire

representation of the human figure or a means of depict-

ing space relationships. Whereas in the earlier

stages , the child 's depiction of an object might change

from day to day , in the schematic stage the chi ld

develops a type or formula for the things he likes to

draw. Even though the child does develop a formula ,

it is not a stereotyped repetition. The child is

still growing and changing and , there fore , his schema

will undergo changes and deviations , remaining flexible . 27

The child may also alter his schema whenever some part of it becomes particularly important to him.

The schema that the child develops may be determined by "how the chi ld sees something , the emotional significance he attache s to it , his kinesthetic experience or touch impression of the object or how the 53 object functions or behaves ." Herbert Read refers to this stage as a time when the child has a desire :

to perpetuate his feel ings , to make a visual and sensible record of an in visible actuality. This is not yet the stage of representation , which is the conscious desire to indicate the appearance of a thing perceived rather than the sensation experienced in the act of perception . It is the stage of substitut ion , for which a symbol will suffice . 54

Depiction of space in the schematic stage still does not deal with depth. The biggest discovery of a child in this stage is simp ly that there is a definite order in spat ial re lationships . The child begins to use the baseline in his artwork . He move s from the attitude of thinking that all objects revo lve around himself to realizing that objects are organized by other means . Therefore , instead of depicting floating objects , as he did earlier , the child now places them

along a baseline . At about age eight , the child illustrates some awareness of spatial depth by beginning to use overlapping of objects.

Along with new ways of dealing with space in a 28 picture , the child discovers the relationship between colors and objects in nature. He establishes a de fi nite color for certain objects ; the sky is always blue and the grass is green . The relationships are con crete ones and do not usually change for the child.

However, though there are common colors used by mo st children for particular objects , each child develops personal color schema for specific objects based on emotional involvement or experience .

The Dawning Realism Stage (The Gang Stage)- -Age nine to eleven

During the dawning realism stage the schema previously used is no longe r adequate for the child. The human schema , which was mo re generalized in the schematic stage , no longer suffices to express all the charac teristics , such as sexual ones , which the child now notices . The geometric lines which comprised the previous human schema and caused each part to lose its meaning when separated from the who le , now become a representation that relates more closely to nature .

Henceforth, each part of the depicted human figure re tains its identity when separated from the whole .

A naturalistic representation doe s not mean , how ever , that the representation is an outcome of visual 29 observation . This is still not a major concern of the child . He gains a feel ing for details and generally prefers details to whole units . However , what he gains in attention to detail, he loses in the depiction of action. In fact , there is usually a greater stiffness in representations of the human figure in this stage .

The representation of space also begins to change from the use of a basel ine to a more naturalistic representation . The child finds that the space between , above or below the baseline is me aningful and the plane is discovered . The transitional period between the schematic stage and the dawning realism stage is usually characterized by the use of two baselines with the space between filled . Even though many children continue to use the basel ine , the space be low begins to take on the meaning of ground . The sky , which heretofore was a line across the top of the page , may also change and gradually assume the signi 55 ficance of a horizon . Although the child has not yet developed a conscious visual precept of depth, he is beginning to become aware of it . Overlapping occurs mo re frequently as the child realizes he must place objects in front of or on top of the sky and ground .

Earlier exaggerations tend to disappear in the dawning realism stage . In order to show emphasis , it 30 is more likely that the child would use details on significant objects or parts . The concern for visual appearance of objects , however , still has little to do with true naturalistic tendencies . There is still no attempt at shading or the effect of motion . The child continues to maintain a certain subjective atti tude toward his work .

Ideas about color also are undergoing change . From the rigid color-object relationship , the chi ld moves to an awareness of mo re subtlety in color . Along with this new subtlety in color , surfaces, textures and patterns become intriguing as he collects and explores objec ts. Even the simplest obj ect can be a source of amazement as the child seeks more facts about the wor ld . From this the interest in materials grows as does the use of different media. The paints , crayons and pencils that previously satisfied him are no longer enough.

It is during the dawning realism stage that the child begins to develop a sense of time . A curiosity about death emerges . The child may develop a fasci nation with monsters and a more macabre aspect may appear alongside the brighter aspects .

In discussing the stages of deve lopment in chil dren 's art it is necessary to keep in mind that there is nothing abrupt in the child 's artistic growth. 31

A child may remain longer in one stage than another.

There is little steady or measured progress in a child 's

artistic development , only a natur al growth. Progress would be an attitude of the adult who recognizes

visually naturalistic representation as a goal .

Initially , most chi ldren are not concerned with natu

ralistic representation and only manifest an interest

in that type of representation in the later stages of deve lopment.

Miro and Dubuffet have taken an interest in chil dren 's art because it differs from naturalistic rep-

resentation . Each has used aspects from chi ldren 's

art , transforming these aspects with specific intentions.

Although art historians have alluded to this influence within their work , the idea that these influences come

from specific stages within the child 's artistic develop ment has not been examined . By a more detailed and

analytical study of Mirb and Dubuffet, the close corre

lation between children 's artistic deve lopment as seen

in specific stages to that of the art of Mirb and

Dubuffet can be doc umented . By examining certain works

of the se two artists and comparing them with the art ,

both stylistically and emotionally , from different

stage s of children 's development , the meaning of the wo rk of both Mir6 and Dubuf fet will become clearer . CHAPTER III

JOAN MIRO AND CHILDREN 'S ART

Mira 's work is infused with the qualities of freshness and innocence present in chi ldren 's art.

It has also been sugge sted that Mira 's own personality has a childlike aspect to it and this may have drawn him to children 's art . Robert Go ldwater has said that Mira "continued to have something childlike 56 about him, both as a person and a painter." He has been described by his friend , Miche l Leiris , as pos- sessing "the childlike character of the marvelous with 57 nothing sophisticated about him. " Even Andre Breton set Mir6 apart from the remainder of the Surrealists by commenting on the "arresting of his personality at an 58 infantile stage ." James Johnson Sweeney even goes so far as to say that in order "to appreciate Mira 's art , one must understand his world of little things .

Little perhaps , but intensely felt with the freshness , 59 of approach that young eyes enjoy. . These ob- servations indicate that Mira 's use of children 's art for inspiration is an extension of that childlike awareness still present in his personality . 33

Though the influences on Mir6 are many , including primitive and folk art , chi ldren 's art remains a consistently noticeable element in his work . His childlike personality is extended into hi s work through what Sweeney terms "a single-minded attempt to effect primary appeals with an intensity of focus that never 60 allows him to deviate from his objective. " According to Margit Rowell, "the objective to effect primary appeals signifies to recover , to express and to solicit 61 reactions at a childlike leve l of human sensibility."

These estimations of Mirb 's mo tives are , as Go ldwater explains , "appreciations of the valuable quality of continuing freshness which Mirb , unlike less fortunate artists , has preserved and which is one of the secrets 62 and sources of his genius ."

To determine just how Mirb has made use of chil dren 's art as a source , it is necessary to examine his work in rel ation to the developmental stage s of children 's art . Mo st of Mirb 's work to be examined in this study was executed after 1930 . The earlier works done prior to 1930 tend to draw on a broad range of influences including folk art and naive art as we ll as children 's art . Since these two areas--folk art and naive art--overlap vis a vis the dawning realism stage of children 's artistic development , it would be diffi 63 cult to determine direct influence . Also , in the 34 work done prior to 1930 , Mire draws on children 's art from many stages of development , mixing and matching motifs. In the work after 1930 and especially that executed in the 1950 's and 1960 's, Mira tends to settle on motifs and technique s that are used by chil dren in the scribbling stage (age 2-4) and the pre 64 schematic stage (age 4-7) . Go ldwater points this out ; Mira 's work , he noted , referred to an earlier , less articulated stage of chi ldren 's art than Klee 's, but he did not delineate specific stages nor did he 65 analyze them in terms of motif or symbo1.

In addition , Jacques Dupin has done a chronological study of Mire 's work and feels that after his first one-man exhibition in 1918 , Mire 's work underwent a sudden change . This change involved a move away from the precision of prior works and toward a complete freedom of imagination . Miro did not abandon precision altogether, but at that time , he began to exhibit what Dupin terms "the duality of Mir6. " This duality consists of a vacillation between two mo des of expres sion : first, a drive toward spontaneity in the direc tion of lyricism; second , an elaborate calligraphy with 66 a concentration on plastic and intel lectual problems .

This duality is not rigid and aspects of bo th sides can be found in the same wo rk . Mira 's mature works , however , seem to incorporate more of the active drive 35

toward spontaneity . Therefore , the influence from the

early developmental stages of children 's art appears

mo st profusely in terms of image and techn ique in these

later works .

Because he utilizes aspects from these early

stage s of a child 's development , Mire 's work takes on

the emotional characteristics implicit in children 's

art of the scribbling and preschematic stages. Inno

cence , playfulness , intense interest in line and a

sense of wonder and curiosity about shapes and mo tifs

are aspects that appear in both Mir6 's work and children 's art. Mirb , with his childlike attitude , has

even formed a series of personal childlike motifs which appear early in his career and continue , mo re

profusely throughout his later work . This repetition

of the symbol or motif is , in itself, a childlike

characteristic appearing in the late preschematic stage

and early schematic stage when children begin to formu

late a personal schema to represent an object .

These personalized mo tifs are very important when

considered in relation to children 's art . In addition

to motif or shape , Mir6 has borrowed aspects of line ,

techn ique and color from children 's art of the scrib-

bling and preschematic stages . Because of the impor-

tance of these elements, Mira 's work will be examined

first in relation to mo tif or shape , then line , 36

technique and color , but not necessarily in chrono

logical order .

Go ldwater states that if Mira 's work give s the

impression of something elementary and precious , it has much to do with a general sense of the ideographic 68 symbol. Perhaps one of the se first symbols or motifs

to come to mind when thinking of Miro is the star . He

utilized this simple linear form in works as early as 69 1924 and continues to do so today . The star appears

first as a clumsily drawn four - or five-pointed shape

that may be filled with color . This first version of

Mir6's star strongly resembles stars seen in children 's drawings ; the se shapes are the first attempt of chil dren to draw stars as adults have presented them .

This particular type of star would probably first be

found in the preschematic stage of children 's art , as

it does in Figure 3, a drawing by a five-year-old child .

The written statement on the drawing indicates that

the star was very important to the child , as does its

size , which is out of proportion in relation to the

other elements of the drawing; a child at this age

draws things larger if they are of emotional importance .

In Mira 's painting, Woman with Blond Armpit Combing

Her Hair by the Light of the Stars (1940 , Figure 4) , one

can see how he has used the star form in a childlike

way . The largest blue star is as important to Miro 37 in this composition as the star in the child's. It hangs or moves through the sky with its uneven points, closely related to the large blue star in the child 's drawing. This solid star , borrowed from the preschematic stage , is not the only type of star that en- chants Mira . He has adopted another form of star that would probably first be found in the scribbling stage of children 's art . This version of the star called the radial star consists of at least three lines criss 70 crossing a central point. Mira used it as early as

1924 when he also used the solid star . At first it appears very straight and balanced , gradually becoming 71 a looser , more haphazard shape . At time s the lines do not seem to meet in the center , giving an even more pronounced childlike effect .

In Painting (1930 , Figure 5) , the radial stars bordering the central form float de licately on the periphery , at times disintegrating. This exemplifies

Mira 's mo st haphazard rendering of these radials. A young child in the scribbling stage just beginning to depict radials might achieve a similar effect in his work. This is one of the first grouping of lines that a child produces in attempting to make a form.

Figure 1 from Kellogg 's study of children 's scribbles shows that this form appears immediately after the basic structured scribbles. Clearly , Mira has chosen 38 a form from the very beginnings of children 's art , more nearly approaching a primordial form than the solid star .

As a child moves into the preschematic stage , use of the radials within more elaborate compositions would continue . Figure 6 is a crayon and watercolor wo rk by a six-year-old child who groups and scatters radials throughout the composition . Sometimes the lines perfectly intersect , at other time s they do not .

The effect , however , remains , giving the feeling of stars floating in space . This idea of using the radial as a compositional element is similar to Miro and is a favorite of both Mir6 and children . It is a simp le symbol , perhaps one of the simplest that Miro makes his own .

Mirb makes use of still another type of rounded

form that first occurs in the child 's scribbling stage--the circle within a circle . This form appears in Mira 's early works concurrent with the radial star .

The motif , as he employs it , may simply be concentric circles or it may become a mandala form with crossed 72 lines in the center . Woman 's Head and Bird On a

Fine Blue Day (1963, Figure 7) contains a clear examp le of the circle within a circle mo tif in the up per right corner . Even the eyes of the figure echo the larger

form . While a young child might use the form for its 39 own sake and a preschernatic child would be more likely to incorporate the form into a composition , these repe titive round shapes seem to have a similar function for

Miro as they do for the scribbling and preschernatic stage child. The tempera painting in Figure 8 by a child in transition from the scribbling to the presche rnatic stage exemplifies both usages. The large circu lar mandala form is simply a shape , while the smaller two have sterns and become flowers .

These circular forms appear in Mira 's work in both manners--as an abstract shape and as a shape that sug gests an object . He even uses this basic form as might a child in this transitional stage . He may allow it to float on its own in a painting as in certain of the paintings done on masonite in the summer of 1936 . He may also choose to let the form become the sun , as in

Personnage Before the Sun (1968 , Figure 9) ; or he may add a few lines resembling hair and appendages, changing the form into a personnage , as in Woman and Birds Be fore

The Moon (1947 , Figure 10 ) .

This multiple use of the same form with minor variations that Mir6 so often employs is characteristic of chi ldren as they move from the scribbl ing into the preschernatic stage . As a child deve lops a form , it may grow into other related forms . What first appears as a circle becomes , with variation , a sun, a mandala 40

or a person . In Figure l, which only includes a few

of these variations made by the child , the progression

of the circle can easily be related visually to Mira 's

variations on the same theme .

The se variations of the circle that Mir6 affects

are particularly noticeable in the "human" form known

as a "personnage ;" he manages this with a few lines

added onto the circle to represent appendages and hair.

In particular , the lines that constitute ha ir appear

frequently in Mira 's work--on women , men , chi ldren and personnages. In the paintings of the 1940 's and 1950 's almost every personnage is equipped with several , us ually three , of these little hairs with curved ends .

The Moon (1948 , Figure ll) , for example , shows but one more example of the appearance of these personnages with hairs .

Children in transition from the scribbling to the preschematic stage also add lines to a circle to

represent the human figure . In Figure 2 one can see

a few examples of how a child might be gin to form

figures. As a child moves into the preschematic stage , the individual hairs are added to the top or sides of

the head . In Figure 12 , a drawing by a five -year-old

child in the preschemat ic stage , a few ha irs extend directly out from the head of the figure on the far

right . Miro borrows this simp le mo tif and personalizes 41

it; the hairs he places on the heads of his personnage s usua lly are slightly curved , whereas a child 's would more than likely be straight . It is clearly a motif that children use , but Mir6 is able to make it his own with a fine-tuned variation . He manifests the same ability with other added appendages used to create his personnages.

The personnages are numerous in the works of the

1940 's, 1950 's and 1960 's. They assume various forms but many resemble the preschematic stage child 's for mation of a human figure . In Mira 's work , they often become a head with only leg-like lines , although some times facial features or a semblance of a torso will be 73 added . In Man and Woman in Front of a Landscape

(1960 , Figure 13) the central figure consists of a circle with two leg lines , while in Figure and Bird

(1963, Figure 14) , the larger figure has a partial torso . In bo th cases the figural type can be found in the late scribb ling stage child 's attempt at figural representat ion.

The main figure in Man and Woman in Front of a

Landscape is a very primary human symbol, having only two lines for appendages, and eyes and nose for a face .

Variations on this basic form are common among children in the early preschematic stage . Figure 2 include s only a few of the mo re advanced versions of this type 42 of figure drawn by a child . In Figure 15 , a painting by a five-year-o ld child in the preschematic stage , there appears a figure quite similar to the one in

Mir6 's painting. The two appendage s extend downward from the head and seem to be legs . The facial features also consist of a nose and two eyes .

Often, children in the early preschematic stage begin the formation of a human out of the preceding mandala , radial or sun forms that they have "discovered " in the scribbling stage . Important features, such as eyes , begin to appear as the child develops an emotional awareness of these body parts. The elimination of arms or other horizontal parts in these first human forms is quite common . According to Arnheim , this occurs because children are in touch with the essence of a form and the aspects that underlie our recognition 74 of it. In his use of the se figure s, Mirb may be attempting to reach back to early chi ldhood in order to grasp this essence .

These primary humans or personnages that Mirb paints and draws do not always eliminate body parts.

Often , as in Figure and Bird (1963, Figure 14) a torso or part of a body is included . The figure is still childlike , but is a more advanced version of the figure that would be found in the child 's preschematic stage .

The larger figure with torso coexists with a more 43 primary-looking figure illustrating Mira 's borrowings from both the scribbling and preschematic stages . Both figures exemplify yet another aspect of children 's art that he utilizes--the manner of representing the eyes.

The eyes of the central figure in Man and Woman in

Front of a Landscape (Figure 13) are the round , doll 75 like eyes that Mir6 uses repeatedly in his work .

Sometime s they are hollow circles , like the ones in the five-year-old 's wo rk in Figure 15. Often they are filled circles or consist of only dots; both of these types of eyes are used by Miro in Figure and Bird

(Figure 14) . All of these eye shapes are very basic forms made by children in the late scribbling stage .

Mir6 , in his work , makes use of a number of the primary eye shapes.

The dots and circles that he uses for eyes are but a small manifestation of Mira 's interest in the circular form. This interest expands in hi s work with a proli feration of dots , spots and splotches . While dots are simply small, rounded forms that are usually repeated , spots are larger forms . They are also rounded and appear a bit more controlled than the splotch, which is a less de fined form that is sometimes rounded , but can spread into a square , rectangle or arced shape .

These de finitions apply to the work of Mir6 and children .

Although the use of a type of mo ttled ground for 44 his paintings occurred early , the spots and splotches 76 first emerge consistently from the background in 1936.

After this time , Mir6 uses these shapes frequently , often together in the same work. In Man and Woman in Front of a Landscape (Figure 13) the spots become recognizable objects from nature--leaves on a tree .

A splotch is then placed between the appendage s of the larger figure , in the upper right corner and is stretched into an arc over the larger figure 's head . In Figure and Bird (Figure 14) spots and splotches fill the space around the figure and bird . In Figure 15 , a child 's work ' from the early preschematic stage , is found a very similar use of spots and splotches. The spots are leaves on a tree and the splotches are between the figure 's legs , arced over the head and fill the space around the figure .

Children in the scribbling and preschematic stages use these spots and splotches often as space-filler .

At this time , children who have already ma stered certain shapes in drawing experiment with making these same shapes in paint. Due to a beginner 's lack of control over the medium , the se shapes often become spots and splotches . These less than prec ise shapes constitute the entirety of a scribbling child 's work but are later combined with figures and objects as the child enters the preschematic stage and develops greater muscular 45

control. Due to the child 's concept of space at this

age , all the shapes are placed around the central 77 figure .

Not only has Mir6 borrowed the spots and splotches

from scribbling and preschematic stage children , but

he has also used the same spatial concept . There is no baseline included in the works cited and the spots

and splotches float around the figures , existing in

a flat plane rather than in the foreground or background .

The two-dimensionality of the work of Mir6 and that of

the child is achieved in much the same manner .

The dots that Miro uses repeatedly may be space

filler like the spots and splotches , but they can become

outline , as we ll. They appear in his work as early as

1924 and are used sparingly , generally depicting move 78 ment of some sort. In the Constellation Series of

1940-41, dots become very precise and profuse . They

are interspersed with personnages , stars , hourglass

forms and all manner of fascinating shapes. The dots

seem more than appropriate here , bringing to mind

the many drawings of the constellations in elementary

science books and suggesting the movements of the

heavens . In these works , the dots begin to take on a

decorative aspect in a controlled manner that in the

early 1950 's became the dots-as-outline style .

In Coiffeur Disheveled by the Fl ight of the 46

Constellations (1954 , Figure 16 ) , Mir6 has employed repeated dots as a secondary outline for the personnage , moon , star and sun . This painting is one of a group of works done in 1954 that make constant use of the 79 dot , not only as an outline , but also as space-filler .

This use of dots to outline and fill def ined areas is characteristic of children in the preschematic stage .

In Figure 17 , a tempera painting by a six-year old child , one clearly sees the chi ld's interest in dots . The large central flower/sun shape is outlined with dots , the girl 's dresses contain a pattern made with them and the area surrounding the figure on the left is filled with them . Figure 8, by an even younger child , has dots throughout the area around the ma in forms . Here the dots are random and characteristic of a scribbling stage child. In Figure 17, by the child in the preschematic stage , dots are used in a bit mo re structured and controlled way .

Although Mire 's use of dots re flects the presche matic stage child , he exercises more control . The dots continue to suggest movement for Mir6 , but the movement is inherent in the repetition of the small shape itself , rather than inferred by suggesting a reference to nature . Allowing the dots to exist without references to a natural object give s them the feeling of pattern or decoration . This trait occur s 47 when children become absorbed in making dots; they make them with great energy and thereby transfer that abun dance of physical movement to their work via the dots.

Mir6 appears to appreciate the dot as a manifestation of this movement, using it in his work as a means of suggesting childlike energy .

Through repetition the dot becomes outline for

Mir6 ; he takes the interest in line as a small child wo uld use it far beyond the dots-as-outline and finally , to an explorat ion of line for its own sake . Line is one of the elements most used by Mir6 in a myriad of childlike ways . No doubt the linear quality of Mir6 's work is so personalized that it has become one of his trademarks; so significant , in fact , that the line need not form itself into a signature for one to recognize it as by Mir6 .

A childlike quality appears in Mir6 's use of line

in his paint ings as early as 1925. Many of the works of the year 1925 , which are simp ly entitled Painting , involve a spare linear quality at once haphazard and controlled. Both aspects are suggested by the use of

line formations typical of a child in the scribbling

stage . Mir6 's lines in this series of paintings vary

from rows of curly -ques to shapes enclosed with a ten

tative , slightly un stable outline . The types of lines emp loyed usually resemble the linear patterns of a 48

child deve loping from controlled scribbling to shape making. Although Mira 's line hesitates , it is directed , 80 appearing purposefully placed .

The appearance of control or attempted control

remains throughout Mira 's subsequent work . Even with the childlike associations, the complete spontaneity

inherent in the earliest markings of children does not appear until much later. Then , in a series of paintings on white grounds of 1960 , scribbles are quickly dashed off. The line formations in these works bring to mind

the very first marks a toddler would make on a white wall with pencil or crayon . Figure 18 is an examp le of

such marks. The feeling of freedom and lack of control existing in these type s of marks is captured by Miro even more successful ly in another group of sketches done on a series of letters to Alexander Calder around

1958 (Figure 19) . Yvon Tallandier speculates that

these were ske tche s for the piece Me ssage to a Friend 81 (1958 ) . These sketches illustrate Mira 's complete

freedom in his use of line . They recall the me thod of

automatism that he began exploring during his associa-

tion with the Surrealists.

In these sketches , Mir6 's line is akin to the

scribbles in Figure 18 and also to the combination of

scribbles and forms in Figure 20 by a four-year-old

child. This child is in transition from the scribbling 49 to the preschematic stage , adding recognizable forms to his scribbles . The line alternates from firm to light indicating the inconsistent pressure control with which a child at this age is struggling. Miro utilizes this technique . At time s his lines are barely scratched onto the paper; at other times a specific form , such as the arrow , will have a consistently pressured outline .

The scribbled forms also are made in a childlike fashion , with the line falling back on itself, moving over and under , and then trailing off. These little forms then exist in a space , suggesting an experiment with line that is a step toward shape-making.

In discussing Mira 's very elementary use of line , it is necessary to recall the broad -brushed , painted outline as we ll. In Man and Woman in Front of a

Landscape (Figure 13) Mir6 uses a painted outline much like a child in the preschematic stage would use it .

Just as the child who painted Figure 15 ut ilized a wide , coarse outline , so Miro has exercised the same lack of restraint with his brush , allowing even the dripped lines to remain. This type of line relates more to a child 's painted linear patterns , in contrast to the drawn line .

This loose , free outline is part of the painting techn ique that infuses Mir6 's later works . The drip ping of lines , broad outline , scrubbed brushwork and 50 colors that bleed into one another are part of a pre schematic stage child 's method of painting. Children , in their excitement and haste to record an image , will paint wet colors onto each other , causing them to smear and bleed . Due to still developing muscle control, the outlines are broad and ragged . Mir6 's techn ique echoes the se same qualities.

The colors that Miro chooses to use in certa in of his works are often pr imary , basic colors. This choice echoes the child 's me thod , as well. Woman 's Head and

Bird on a Fine Blue Day (Figure 7) , Woman and Birds

Before the Moon (Figure 10) , Man and Woman in Front o.f a Landscape (Figure 13) and Figure and Bird (Figure 14) contain color choices that seem to be unmixed and used straight from the tube . Any mixing that does occur , as in the smaller figural form of Man and Woman in

Front of a Landscape (Figure 13) , gives the appearance of two wet colors painted onto the same area with the mixing occurring as if by accident.

Children paint in this manner while in the scribbling and early preschematic stages. They also have more concern for manipulating the brush and making marks than they do for color choices. Bright colors are predominantly in their works by virtue of the ir availability . Tempera, watercolors, crayons and other materials are usually available to the child in primary 51

and secondary colors and black and white . It is generally designed this way so a child will learn the basics first. In any case , a child in the scribbling or preschematic stage wo uld not use colors naturalistically , but would choose color based on emotional preference . Mira often uses basic colors and selects colors that are no t naturalistic . For this reason his use of color appears to be childlike .

Mir6 has not only made use of a child 's color scheme , but he has added the child 's painting technique to the shapes and mo tifs he has chosen and to his use of space and line . All these elements , because of the manner in which Mira employs them , combine to evoke a sense of innocence and freshness. The star mo tif con- jures up an association with simp licity and a child 's play fulness with a newly found line configuration . The circles , dots , spots , splotches , personnages and simpli fied linear usage recall the very first markings a child make s. Mira exhibits a will to expand awareness by go ing back to a very primary human activity . It is not just the energy and excitement that a child puts

forth in his markings that Mira captures , but some thing mo re basic; it is the very first link that man

has with his artistic heritage as reborn in the child . CHAPTER IV

JEAN DUBUFFET AND CHILDREN'S ART

Jean Dubuffet's art , like that of Mir6 , shows a great influence from the art of children . But, unlike Mira , whose works are reminiscent of the play ful spirit of a very young child, Dubuffet 's work has an aggressive immediacy that recalls the art of older children . Art Brut , which is comprised of untrained , non-professional, natural art , includes the work of children as well as the art of the mentally imbalanced . This type of art has provided a rich source for Dubuffet . Longing to escape the affecta tion and boredom of tradition , he has studied , collected and attempted to infuse his own work with the simplicity and straightforward attitude of the untrained artist.

His interest in the art of children and other un trained artists led Dubuffet to formulate the philosophy that he presented in his Anticultural Positions speech of 1951. In this lecture he expressed his belief in the continuity between man and nature , disbelief in the traditional lines drawn between beauty and ugliness and an understanding of the extension of a visual 53

82 o b.Je ct to lts. natural properties . Considering this philosophy , his interest in children 's art is understandable .

Go ldwater believes that in his desire to cast off the accepted tradition of "acquired me ans ," Dubuffet sought a road back into the elementary and formative beginnings of art [to tran scribe ] a state of child 83 like innocence and amazement ." This state of mind to which Dubuffet aspired led him , quite naturally , to children 's art . Within the art of chi ldren can be found distortion , crudeness of technique , lack of perspective and an intense interest in materials. These things and what Go ldwater terms "the chi ld 's emphasis 84 on the remembered me ssage-carrying detail " provided examples for Dubuffet outside the realm of classical be auty , which he so vehemently rej ected .

Dubuffet , despite his naive inspiration , uses the ideas of children in a very sophisticated manner .

Because of this sophistication and the combination of things to be considered , his work can more reasonably be compared to the work of older children , especially those in the dawning realism stage of development

(age 9-11) , than to younger children as in the work of

Miro . His interest in materials , too ls and techniques as we ll as the subjects he portrays , are more closely related to the interests and attitudes of older children . 54

In addition , Dubuffet 's work has often been de scribed 85 as a combination of cruelty and tenderness . This , too , can be said of older children. Dubuffet appears to be interested not so much in the innocence of child hood as in children 's capacity for viewing and depict ing the essence of their environment.

In examining Dubuffet 's work as it relates to children 's art , it appears that the early years of his production contain a more direct visual correlation than his later works . Dubuffet came to art as a pro- fession later in life and had his first exhibition in

1944 , at age 43. Therefore , the maj ority of the works considered in this study will fall between 1944 and

1960.

Dubuffet works in series usually dealing with different areas of subject matter. Because of this ,

it is mo st reasonable to examine his work in relation to children 's art using his own organization , that is to say , portraits , city scenes , topographies or texture studies and works that deal with nature .

Dubuffet has been described as an urban artist, one interested in real-life people , the ir habits and 86 the places in which they live and work . This aspect of the artist is apparent in his depiction of buildings and modes of transportation . He makes no attempt to beautify the city , but instead no tices its 55 ordinary and mundane aspects portraying them in a naive manner . This interest parallels the interests of children in the dawning realism stage . At this time children become interested in the details of the world around them. Whereas the world of younger children is centered on themselves , older children begin to develop a sensitivity to their expanded environment. They become interested in depicting this environment more from the attitude of objective interest than from a judgmental point of view . This enables children to find fascination in the same type of details as does

Dubuffet--cracks in sidewalks , marks on walls , pieces of discarded debris , unusual looking people or old buildings--all are viewed by children with excited eyes.

Because of this non-judgmental attitude , children 's artwork at this age is blunt and without pretense , ad- jective s that describe Dubuffet 's work . Dubuffet 's interest in the Metro and the people riding it is a subject that would also interest children. One of his views of the Metro in Figure 21 uses an arrangement and view of the commuters simi lar to that of older chi ldren . The people are depicted with either a straight

frontal or simple profile view . The bodies are basically rectangular and simp ly painted . The feeling of closeness is achieved by placing the figures next to one another wlt. h some over 1 applng.. 87 Even with this 56 overlapping , however , the space remains shallow and the figures appear flat . In Figure 22 , a painting of the

New York subway by an eleven-year-old child in the dawning realism stage , there is a similar use of space .

At this time in a child 's development, his awareness of space is growing and he begins to depict it with an overlapping of objects. Neverthele ss, he rarely goes beyond this method , so the figures remain flat and frontal .

Within both of the se works there is also a facial type . The eyes are a simple almond shape with the iris inside ; the nose consists of a 45 degree angle .

The child at this age is also becoming more aware of facial details and moves from representing an eye as a circ le or a dot to one that is more naturalistic .

The eyes in Figure 22 are more naturalistic and , therefore , characteristic of an older child. The same applies to the nose line . The mouth also can now be shown with an upper and lower line illustrating an awareness of lips . In his Me tro painting (Figure 21) ,

Dubuf fet utilizes the child 's same facial structure with few variations .

The facial type fashioned by Dubuf fet , which gives each Metro rider 's face essentially the same appearance , exists in the work of the child , as we ll .

The formulating of a facial type or schema is 57

characteristic of children in the schematic stage , but

is often carried over into the dawning realism stage

with a few variations included . Dubuffet 's variations

occur in the representation of the mouth. There are

shaped lips , smile lines and open-mouth ovals.

Although these variations give some individuality of

expression to each figure , the schema remains more

apparent, giving the feeling that each figure is

stamped from the same mo ld . Even Dubuffet 's interest

in other details, such as hats , a belt or a mustache

only add minor alterations to the formula. The child 's work contains simi lar variations. A hat , a beard or

be lts are added details , but the facial similarities

are still mo st noticeable .

All these variations are characteristic of a child

in the dawning realism stage . There is the beginning

of an attempt at individuation accomplished through

attention to clothing differences even when the fac ial

type remains consistent. The fascination with the

small details is particularly important for this age

child as he grows in his awareness of the differences

among people and becomes a more social individual .

This becomes manifest in the subjects that the chi ld

is interested in representing.

Dubuffet 's cho ice of subject , in this case the

Me tro , also ho lds interest for the child. This interest 58 extends to observing the rest of the city. Dubuffet has often used the city as a subject in his early work , View of Paris--The Life of Pleasure (1944) be ing one example . Its primary colors , flat buildings and five childlike figures bear a great resemblance to a very young child 's artwork . But the types of spatial arrangements in that work and in another of the city scenes , View of Paris With a Dog (1943,

Figure 23) , make both works more akin to the work of an older child.

In View of Par is With a Dog , Dubuffet has included a row of tall buildings with rectangular daubs of paint to represent windows . This same type of building appears in Figure 24 , a painting by an eight-year-old child in transition from the schematic stage to the dawning realism stage . This row arrangement of rec tangular shapes to represent a city is typical of this age child . The child has used a minimum of overlapping forms and the buildings are set on a baseline that consists of the bo ttom edge of the paper . The placing of objects along the bottom edge of the paper diminishes as the child grows into the dawning realism stage . As the child becomes more aw are , this basel ine moves higher on the page and an interest in the plane occurs .

In bo th of the se views of Paris Dubuffet has moved the baseline upward with people and objects placed 59 below the baseline . This use of dual baselines is common in the dawning realism stage . Since children at this age are in the process of discovering the plane , they will often use two or more baselines , each one del ineating a section of the picture . This type of spac ial organization is rarely found among younger children .

Following his interest in city scenes , Dubuffet began to deal with faces and portraiture . His involvement with the figure , in fact , is a primary theme throughout his early work . Children , too , improvise the human image and maintain a constant curiosity about people and the way they look and dress . Adults develop a respect for the human face that makes them sensitive to any de formation of it. Children , on the other hand , tend to lack this respect. Because they are less conscious of time and do not feel that defor mities can affect them , they find ugliness or the unusual appearance of others to be a constant source of amusement and curiosity . Dubuffet , in many of his portraits , appears to have adopted this aspect of the 88 child 's attitude .

In hi s portraits , Dubuffet makes much of the wrinkles and grimace s of his subj ect . He also often includes a facial surface that appears scrubbed or scratched , as if the side of a charcoal or crayon 60 were wiped across the face . Details such as teeth , glasses , nostrils , hair arrangement and eyebrows assume an exaggerated importance . It is also necessary to realize that these portraits were done from memory and not from viewing a sitter . Dubuffet be lieves that drawing from memory , as a child does , is more natural than scrutinizing the subject for a long period of time . Using memory recall , he feels that he gives a more accurate account of how the subject has touched his sensibilities and , thereby , produces a more truth ful image . With this attitude , Dubuffet parallels the approach of children in that they have little interest in drawing from nature .

Along with the proliferation of facial details ,

Dubuffet 's use of line in these portraits is calcu latedly careless. It often appears scratched onto the surface , giving a jagged effect . Occasionally an outline will not connect exactly. Having a basic disrespect for traditional portraiture , Dubuffet se ems ,

in certain of his works , to want to obliterate the

image he has produced . The two figures in Figure 25 ,

the right a portrait of Miche l Tapie and the left a

portrait of Marcel Jouhandeau (1946) , show an interest

in certain details , such as the eyebrows , te eth and

glasses , but much of the face is obscured by ma rkings

scraped over the features. 61

Much has been said about the destructive element 90 in Dubuffet 's drawings . Perhaps the Corps de Dame series (1950) is one of the more graphic examp les of the disintegration of the figured form , awash in scribbles and slashed lines. This des tructive element is mo re subtle in the portraits , achieved more with textured surface than with line . This attempt to destroy a previous ly made image occurs in children 's art , beginning in the dawning realism stage .

Along with a striving for a more naturalistic representation of his environment, a child at this age also begins to be more self-critical. The awareness that his representation of an object does not correspond to what he feels is its appearance in nature will lead a child to exclaim that he has "messed up " a picture .

His idea of what is naturalistic still does not cor respond with an adult 's idea ; nevertheless , the critic within the child emerges and may cause him to cross out , erase or otherwise cover up an image with which 91 he is dissatisfied . In Figure 26 , a painting by a nine-year-old child , the face takes on a ghostlike appearance--hardly the pleasant face one would imagine coming from the hand of a happy child.

Older children are often disturbed by their inability to control their environment. As much as they remain open to exploring art materials, they can also 62 become frustr ated by their inability to manipulate them. This feeling becomes mo re prevalent in the late dawning realism stage just prior to entering adolescence .

The troubled feelings , dissent with adults and banding into peer group gangs often giv e s rise to the cruelty that children may exhibit. Things forbidden by adults , such as writing on walls and challenging the "right " way to do things , become common behavior. The chil dren 's graffiti on the walls and the alleyways of

Paris , which so intrigued Dubuffet , exhibit visually 92 a sense of this often troubled age . The obliteration of their own artwork is another manifestation of the confusion within th e older child.

Dubuffet , in his use of scratched lines and scraped sur faces, as on the faces of his portraits , transposes the troubled aspects of the child into his own work .

This interest in the scratchings and scrawlings of children continue s even into the subjects that revo lve around a more rural setting , such as la ndscapes .

Between May , 1949 and January , 1950 , Dubuffet began a series of animated landscapes that were very textural. The Grotesque Landscapes . are executed with an arbitrary freedom of line which is incised into a paste-covered surface . The se ea rly la ndscapes done on a thick emul sion prefigure his later Soils and Te rrains serie s of 1951 and 1952. The early landscapes seem to 63 be an outgrowth of Dubuffet 's pursuit of the auto matic or uncontrolled . With their wandering, con fused linear patterns and scratched surfaces, they 93 resemble a child 's scratchings in the sand or dirt.

They tend to be overall patterns of the earth, whereas in later landscapes there appears a definite above ground , below-ground separation .

These two landscape series were followed by a group of Landscaped Tables , consisting of tabletop forms turned up toward the viewer in childlike perspective .

The tabletops were then filled with either linear patterns scratched into a thick impasto or a myriad of india ink lines of similar predilection . Fo llowing that , he completed a group of india ink drawings with the landscape extending off of the tabletop entitled

Radiant Lands (1951-52) . These drawings are full of radial patterns , the type a young scribbling stage child might draw . However , the complexity of arrange ment in his works is like that of an older child in the dawning realism stage .

Table Chargee D'Objets (1951 , Figure 27) is an example of the beginning of the complex radial patterns.

In this painting the elementary radials are confined within a turned up tabletop . Although the radials can be found in the scribbling stage , the combined proliferation of them is not characteristic of a 64 young child. Only an older child would enjoy repeating the radials , as Dubuffet did , in order to represent something else .

In Paysage aux Filigranes (1952 , Figure 28) from the Radiant Lands series , Dubuffet has advanced the radial shapes into an even mo re intricate arrangement.

They become cel lular forms in an underground setting.

The earth fills the bottom three-quarters of the pic ture , with the top quarter appearing to represent the area above ground . This type of spatial arrangement is one which might also be used by an older child when considering an underground theme .

Figure 29 , a work of blown and drawn radials repre senting bulbs growing underground by an eight-year-old child , illustrates a child 's beginning awareness of this type of spatial arrangement , as we ll as an interest in repeated radial forms . In this work , one sees how a child moving into the dawning realism stage might visualize that about which he knows but has not actually seen . This type of understanding of space would not occur at an earlier age .

Figure 30 , a drawing by an eleven-year-old chi ld , illustrates how this spatial awareness continues .

For this child the area underfoot ho lds the same fascination that it did for Dubuffet. Small linear cell- like forms are repeated with a quality of line that 65 parallels Dubuffet 's. Paysages aux Filigr anes (Figure 28) contains the same double outlined cellular shapes in the bottom section of the composition that occur in the same section of the child 's drawing.

Dubuffet, in his preoccupation with the semi imaginary forms under the earth, exhibits a childlike curiosity about geology and topography that is also characteristic of children in the dawning realism stage .

Whereas a younger child is occupied primarily with his own self and the things that relate directly to his own needs , a child in the dawning realism stage becomes fascinated with more of the extended environment. He becomes curious about science , the way things grow and 94 deve lop and how things reproduce . This heightened awareness occur s visually in the child 's art through a broader choice of subject matter represented in greater detail. A younger child , though eager to draw radials , would never dream of organizing them to sugge st the earth . An older child , on the other hand , wo uld be able to draw on his repertoire of forms quite easily .

The Rad iant Lands series also bears a resemblance to unconscious doodling . Circular forms are repeated , out lined and wander across the surface . Children especially enjoy doodling beginning in the dawning realism stage and continuing into subsequent stages 66 of development . This type of automatic drawing which, unlike scribbling, exhibits more muscle control , is something that almost every person entertains at some point in their development and relates strongly to

Dubuffet 's desire to use artforms that would appeal to 95 the common man .

Flowers are a subject that often interests children .

The combination of be ing a radial form and an object that they see frequently may be the reason for the 96 attraction . A very young child will be satisfied by a circle with a center dot to represent a flower , but an older child would be more interest ed in the detail of the flower , including the petals , patterns , dots and leaf formations . Figure 31 , a crayon resist painting by a nine-year-old chi ld , has these characteristics . Insects are also represented , butterflies be ing a favorite of children .

The radial type forms are continued by Dubuffet in a series of works utilizing butterfly wings as materials. The Garden of Bibi Trompette (1955 , Figure

32) contains multiple flower and butterfly forms that are either constructed fr om butterfly wings or painted .

Dubuffet ha s here again chosen a subject that fascinates children . There are two particular aspects of this work that are specifically childlike : first , the subject of flowers and butterflies ; second , the tec hnique . 67

The Garden of Bibi Trompette , with its dark back ground laden with colorful flowers and butterflies , almost appears to be a crayon resist painting itself.

Though it is a partially collaged painting, the dark areas around the forms , partially obscuring some of the color , are characteristic of crayon resist. This particular technique is a favorite of children . By first using crayons to color the forms , a thin wash of india ink or paint is then applied over the entire surface , filling in the areas around the forms and often leaving residue on the colored forms , as well.

Children are delighted with the element of surprise as they see their forms re-emerge from the darkness . This fascination with materials is also a major concern for

Dubuffet and parallels the dawning realism child 's development .

In "Memoire on the Deve lopment of My Work from 1952"

Dubuffet writes in great detail concerning the impor 97 tance of technique and materials to his work . He speaks of allowing himself to be directed by the sug- gestive power of the materials , finding experimentation with them ultimately as rewarding as the image he is 98 pro d uc 1ng . . He has worked with frottage and co llage , used pastes and textural sur faces as we ll as found objects which he has collected . His butterfly pictures illustrate this fasc ination with collecting and 68 organizing natural objects. In addition , he has often

chosen drawing materials that are very basic , such as coal or chalk and implements for scratching into

surfaces . It is perhaps this abiding interest in the nature of materials that links Dubuffet 's work with the underlying aspects of chi ldren 's art of the dawning realism stage .

As mentioned previous ly , this age child is excited about his extended environment . This includes a great interest in collecting. It is at this age in particular that children are especially excited about collecting and organizing stones , shells , insects or pieces of debris that many adults would consider useless. There

is al so at this time a growing interest in using more unusual materials for depicting visual images. Crayons and pencils are no longer enough. Older children want to build things , glue obj ects onto surfaces, scratch into clay with great tactile pleasure , pour plaster and explore what happens to their ideas when these materials are used . They , like Dubuffet , allow them

selves to be manipulated by the materials, usually with

great abandon . Though they are sometime s dissatisfied with the results , they proceed in their exploration enthusiastically . The materials and the techniques

used then begin to take on as much importance as the

image produced . 69

In the Grotesque Landscapes of the late 1940 's,

Dubuffet 's surfaces are textured and scratched as if a child found a stick and was compelled to fill a wet surface with marks . His series of Impr int Assemblages

(series I, 1953; series II, 1955) are based on rubbings : this is ano ther way of allowing the material to form the image . The Little Statues of Precarious Life (1954) parallel a child 's techn ique of paper mache , us ing newspaper and glue . Some of these statues also cons ist of objects that mi ght be found in a child 's treasure bo x--nails , broken glass, old sponges . For Dubuffet and the older child , materials are of paramount importance .

Following The Little Statues of Precarious Life

Dubuffet began a series of work that was not so much concerned with materials, though still maintaining childlike imagery . In the s ummer of 1954 he turned his attention to his environment with a series of

Cows , Grass and Foliage works . This group of works contains many drawings and paintings of cows that are reminiscent of the older child 's love of animals .

Dubuffet manage s to catch the essence of a cow by using a child 's method . Consequently , one finds a numbe r of profile views of the cow or wo rks that are concerned with the shape of the cow's head . These points of view are characteristic of a child in the dawning realism stage . 70

The profile view that Dubuffet chooses in Cow (1954 ,

Figure 33) is a view that a child would ordinarly choose .

In this way , all the body parts which the child knows to

be important can be included in the drawing. Figure 34 ,

a painting by a ten-year-old child , uses this same

profile . The child 's work is stiff , lacking Dubuffet 's

fluidity of line , but all the same body parts are depicted--the teats , ho rns , tail and coat . There is

also , at this time , an attention to the shapes of body parts. The painting in Figure 35 , by a child entering

the dawning realism stage , shows a sensitivity to the details of the head and illustrates the child 's gift

for unconsciously capturing expression . The same head

shape has been used by Dubuffet , not only in Cow , but

also in the we ll-known work , Cow with the Subtile Nose

(1954) .

The interest in animals combined with repetitive

forms is also apparent in Prowling Dog (1955 , Figure 36) .

The dog , like Dubuffet 's cow , is presented in profile

as an older child would draw an animal . The area

below-ground , as in Paysage aux Filigranes (Figure 28) ,

contains patterns that remind one of doodling or perhaps

a child 's attempts at representing a highly textured

surface . The spatial arrangement that Dubuffet utilizes ,

placing the animal high on the page in order to con

centrate on the space underground , is also characteristic 71 of a dawning realism stage child .

Throughout his career , Dubuffet has expressed his interest in children 's art , and although he has not managed to completely escape the sophistication of the

European tradition , the influence of children 's art is apparent. Through his choice of subject matter , use of various materials and techniques and concentra tion of certain types of forms , his work seems to draw predominantly on the art that would be produced by a child in the dawning realism stage of development . His subject matter appears closely aligned with this age chi ld , particularly in the depiction of city scenes , portraits and nature works . The attention to and emphasis upon details characteristic of dawning realism stage children is also apparent in Dubuffet. Because there is a concentration of influences from the dawning realism stage in children 's art, Dubuffet 's work does not so muc h reflect the innocence of early childhood , but the older child 's growing concern with his extended environment and the excitement combined with frustration that result from that growing awareness.

The crowded aspect of Dubuffet 's pictures , which

Goldwater notes , also lends itself more to a comparison 99 with the work of older children . Because there is so much happening in many of his compositions--textured surfaces , complexity of line and a multitude of 72 objects--Dubuffet 's work goes beyond the simp licity of composition that the very young child would enjoy .

If innocence parallels simplicity , then Dubuffet 's complicated compositions carry one beyond the pure innocence of the very young into the complexities of beginning awareness. CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

What the avant-garde artist desires from the viewers of his work is examined by Meyer Shapiro in "The Libera- ting Quality of Avant-Garde Art ;" he finds that :

The artist does not wish to create a work in which he transmits an already prepared and complete me ssage to a relatively indifferent and impersonal receiver. Rather the art object takes on the life of a spiritual object pro viding an experience which is not given automatically , but requires preparation and purity of spirit . It is primarily in modern painting that such contempla tiveness and commun ion with the work of another human being , the sensing of another 's perfected feeling and imagi nation , becomes possible . l O O

This is true of both Miro and Dubuffet , who , utilizing elements of children 's art , enable the viewer to experience not only communion with the spirit of the artist but also with aspects of his own spirit , retrieved from childhood .

Joan Mir6 , by incorporating elements from the artwork of children in the scribbling and preschematic stages of development , gives his wo rk the feeling of innocence and freshness inherent in children at that age . 74

Jean Dubuffet , by using elements from the late schematic and dawning realism stages , imbues his work with the intensity , conflict and environmental awareness present in older chi ldren . The preparation , then , that

Shapiro suggests is necessary for the unders tanding of an artist's work is already present in the viewer because he has experienced these feel ings during his own childhood .

Goldwater states that one of the primary reasons artists sought pr imit ive forms of art as inspiration was the desire to create something more emotionally compelling than superficial variations of surface . In order to do this they searched for fundamentality and simplic ity ; they reasoned that "the further one goes back--historically , psychologically or aesthetically-- the simpler things become ; and that because they are simple , they are mo re profound , mo re important and mo re 101 va luable ." Children 's art, just because it was felt to represent the ve ry be ginnings of man 's desire to express himself, seemed to Miro and Dubuffet to be a fundamental source from which to make art .

Psychologist Erich Neumann , explains the artist 's attraction to these beginnings in this way :

From childhood onward the creative individual is captivated by his ex perience of the un itary reality of chi ldhood ; he re turns over and over 75

again to the great hieroglyphic images of archetypal existence . They were mirrored for the first time in the well of childhood and there they remain until, recollecting, we bend over the rim of the well and rediscover them, forever unchanged . 102

Through this search for beginnings , many artists of the

Twentieth Century have created an art that Roger Shat-

tuck characterizes as "not self-forgetful but seeking the means to become totally self-remembering, self- ., 103 ref lexive . Mir6 and Dubuffet, in particular ,

sought the means to create works of art with specific

emotional content from specific elements in the art of

children.

Within the work of Mirb can be found the techn ique

and the imagery (stars , radials or circles) that charac -

terize the art of very young children . Through the se elements, Mire 's work then takes on the freedom and naivete that are aspects of childhood . Children in the

scribbling and preschematic stages are completely self-

involved and imagine themselves to be the center of the

universe . Because of this there is a great freedom in

their expression . This self-centeredness also causes

the child to have little distance from his work , expect-

ing it to express directly what he feels and perceives .

There is a directness of intent and a total emersion in 104 feeling based on a un ified response to the environment. 76

Mira achieve s this unification and directness of expression by simplification throughout his work . Con- cerning this he has said:

My per sonnages have undergone the same process of simplification as the colors. Now that they have been simplified , they appear more human and alive than if they had been represented in all their details. Had they been represented in all their details they would lack that imag inary life which amplifies everything . I OS

The imaginary life that he seeks to represent by simpli- fying, relates to the child 's invo lvement with fantasy .

The thinking of children in the scribbling and preschematic stages is a combination of fantasy , reality and 106 biological responses to the environment. This gives their wo rks a charming confusion , often filled with highly personal symbols , that Miro finds intriguing ; he includes this type of juxtaposition within his work and also transfers the fantasy/reality confus ion into his titles . Through the use of a title such as Woman with

Blond Armp it Combing Her Hair By the Light of the Moon ,

Mirb captures something of the child 's wordp lay and indicates to the viewer that the frame of reference for perceiving cannot be totally rational .

The irrational aspect of Mi re 's work , which in- va lves strange creatures , haphazard qualities of line

and painting style or small scattered mo tifs , provide s

a close link to chi ldren 's art and the nature of 77 childhood itself. Interest in the inaccessible or for- gotten resources of the human mind was one of the mo- tivating forces that induced artists to model their work less and less on the rational , polite disciplines of the past. Feeling that man searche s the past for his lost self, Roger Shattuck notes that :

the subconscious thought processes- dreams , memory , wit--function by sud den leaps , the way a spark jumps a gap and the arts have sought to duplicate these inner creative processes , to por tray them without putting them through rigorous realignments of. . linear perspective or tonality . l07

Mir6 's work could be an illustration of this premise .

By utilizing elements from the pre-rational stages of a child 's development Mir6 transfers the leaps and sudden revelations that are part of a child 's thought 108 processes lnt. o h'lS own work .

In the same way , Mir6 gives his work a sense of immediacy and spontaneity , as if it were something new , presented for the first time . He has said , "I should like to paint , to produce something as direct as nature . ,109 Immediate , you k now , Wlt. h not h'lng ln. b etween .

The immediacy of the art of children , especially when in the scribbling stage , is achieved by dashing off things very quickly , produc ing many scribbles and thereby continually evolving new forms . Incapable of sustaining interest in one thing for any length of time , 78 the young child is always searching for a new means of knowledge . As if assuming the young child 's attitude ,

Mir6 says that "I am only interested in the picture I am actually painting. As soon as a picture is finished , it becomes something alien to me , no longer in- 110 t er . . estlng . T h oug h , Miro does not dash off his works as a child would , he achieves the feeling of immediacy by using the motifs and line quality that a scribbling stage child employs . He manipulates these forms within his own work in order to present spontaneity and immediacy as parts of his work.

Go ldwater interprets the de sire to present subjects immediately with as little "psychic distance" as possible , as a me ans "to reduce the picture to a single , simple , dominating scene which will absorb the viewer or be absorbed by him in a direct and undifferentiated •111 fashion . This indicates a desire on the part of the artist to work toward something so honest and straightforward that it will have a universal appeal-- an appeal so great that it will reveal a common denomi- nator in all men.

Miro speaks of the desire to create a un iversal ge sture . He feels that "a profoundly individual ge s- ture is anonymous . By be ing anonymous , it can attain 112 to the un iversa1. • The idea that Mirb proposes concerning the parallel between anonymity and 79 universality is examined by ethnologist Ernst Vatter .

He adopts the concept of the complete anonymity of primitive artists , of which children are considered a part. His evaluation is that "we have lost what primitive peoples. . possessed to the highest degree : a world view which encloses mankind and the All in a 0113 deeply felt unity . Since the stages of development in children 's art are stages through which all men have passed , the art of children represents a type of universal statement . By drawing inspiration from the art of early childhood , when the conflicts of the individual with nature and society are not yet realized ,

Mir6 has more nearly approached what he desired .

The desire to present something un iversally appeal- ing was also an objective of Jean Dubuffet . He has explained that he aims ,

not at the mere gratification of a hand ful of specialists but wo uld rather amuse and interest the man in the street . It is the man in the street that I am after , whom I feel closest to , with whom I want to make friends and enter into confidence and connivance , and he is the one I want to please and enchant by means of my work . ll4

The rejection of the elite and adoption of the common man can be paralleled with Dubuffet 's re jection of tradition in favor of what he cons idered a more basic form of expression .

In explanation , he states : "Obvious ly we are all 80 conditioned by culture from childhood onwards. I've always hoped to decondition myself through art , because

I want above all to make myself completely free and 115 receptive to new ideas ." Dubuffet , in his hopes of achieving a more receptive state , went to children 's art for inspiration. However , his work , because it makes use of elements from the art of children in the schematic and dawning realism stages of development , has a very different emotional content than the work of Mir6 .

In contrast to the childlike innocence of Mir6 's personality which causes him to speak oblique ly about his interest in children 's art , Dubuffet gives proli- fie explanations of his mo tives . His lengthy eluc i- dations remind one of the older child who is always searching for an explanation . Indeed , he states that ,

my persistent curiosity about children 's drawings and those of anyone who has never learned to draw is due to my hope of finding . . those involuntary traces inscribed in the memory of every ordinary human being and the affective reactions that link each individual to the thin1s that surround him and catch his eye . l 6

Perhaps it is his de s ire to capture the child 's interest in things that surround him that links his work so closely with the work of children in the schematic and dawning realism stages , for it is during these time s that chi ldren go beyond the earlier self-centered 81 attitude to deve lop an intense interest in the details of th eir environment.

Dubuffet utilizes the profusion of details , the strict frontal and prof ile view , the spatial relation ships and the subject matter of chi ldren in these two stages of deve lopment . He also carries his interest in chi ldren 's art further; he has a fascination with all kinds of materials , reminding one of the chil d 's tactile pleasure in scratching into a surface or mani pulating clay or mud . Because of th e influences from these stages of deve lopment , his work reflects the in consistent and confused emotions of these chi ldren .

Children in the schematic stage experience a change from the egocentric attitude of the previous stage ; they develop a more cooperative one as they begin to relate to others and see themselves as part of the environment. They begin to structure their environment in such a way that they can be gin to organize and see relationships in their thinking processes . This extended awareness continues into the dawning realism stage but is coupled with conflicting emotions , often unpredictable . It is at this time that the struggle for independe nce begins, causing ho stility to adults , whom children feel are against their independence .

They may also exhibit crue lty toward peers whom they feel are not strong enough em otionally or ph ysically 82

to fight the battle for self-reliance .

All these emotional aspects are inherent in the

art of these children . Though a child 's early drawings

are primarily guided by physiological forces , his

subsequent work becomes more emotionally expressive;

all the stylistic elements of his work express these

emotions. By transferring an aspect of the child 's

style to another work of art , the emotional content

is carried as well.

Dubuffet has used elements from the artwork of

children in the dawning realism stage , especially , and

thereby transfers much of that confusing unpredictability

into his own work. "I am for confusion ," he has stated , 117 as if in concurrence . In support of this aspect

of the unpredictable within Dubuf fet , Thomas Me sser maintains that "the many levels of Dubuffet 's art are

rooted in his moody and mercurial personality that has

divided his world into friends and enemies and has , in

turn , inspired admiration and aversion , love and ., 118 f ear . The pre-adolescent child in the dawning

realism stage exhibits some of these same qualities .

In contrast to the childlike innocence of Miro 's per-

sonality , admired by his associates , Dubuffet appears

to evoke mixed emotions from others. Their works con-

tain a simi lar contrast.

The fact that Miro and Dubuffet were drawn to 83 different stages of children 's art is partly respon- sible for the stylistic contrasts in their work and suggests a deeper contrast in meaning on a philosophical level between their works . Daniel Cordier has made the following observation concerning the contrast between Mira and Dubuffet :

Dubuffet 's experiments with overall lines in Radiant Lands corresponds to the . . instinct for covering the whole sur face of the picture because the essence might escape if there were even the smallest empty space and the fascination be lost. The single dot that Mir6 places on an empty canvas , on the contrary , symbolizes his proud confience in the liberty of man . ll9

This statement can be related to the security of early childhood that comes through in Mir6 's work as opposed to the insecurity of the older child that manifests itself in the work of Dubuffet . Go ldwater puts it this way : "Compared to Mir6 's open , transparent spaces ,

Dubuffet 's figures live in opaque , literally earthy surroundings from which they are often indistin 120 guishable ." This comparison is evident when con- trasting Mira 's Woman and Birds Before the Moon

(Figure 10) with Dubuffet 's Prowling Dog (Figure 36) .

Mira 's figures and shapes float in an open space whereas Dubuffet 's dog remains earthbound , almost as if he grew out of the very sur face on which he stands .

The viewer , then , can find in Mira the freedom 84

and secur ity of the young child and in Dubuffet , the

insecurities and curiosity of the older child . Both

artists have expressed an interest in the way their

works are perceived . Dubuffet would like to "force

the imagination of the viewer to function more vigo- ,121 rously . Toward this desire he has incorporated

elements of children 's art as if in hopes of putting

the viewer back in touch with his own lost emotions.

The work of Mira , though evoking a different set of emo-

tions , accomplishes a similar result. Goldwater states

that the influence of children 's art on artists such

as Mir6 and Dubuffet was based upon the artist 's appre-

ciation of psychological beginnings and was used as a 122 means o f d lrect. 1 y conveylng. emotlon. . This appre-

ciation of Miro and Dubuffet for the psychological and

emotional aspects of childhood exists in their work

through the ir borrowings from children 's art .

The desire to abandon what were perceived to be

the outworn conventions of Western society has drawn

these artists to the work of children . Within their

interest in chi ldren 's art , one sees a desire to ex-

press differing conceptions of the world . Miro was

drawn to younger children 's art and Dubuffet to older

children 's because their respective ideas and feelings

are more closely reflected in these stages. Their

understanding of the differing aspects of childhood 85 can then be presented to the viewer on the basis to which Shapiro referred when he said ,

the object of art is, therefore , more passionately than ever , the occasion of spontaneity or intense feeling. It is addressed to others who will cherish it. . . and who will recognize in it an irreplaceable quality and will be atten tive to every mark of the maker 's ima gination and feeling. l23

By making use of chi ldren 's art , both Mir6 and Dubuffet give to the viewer the joy , fear , laughter and exalta- tion that lead him irresistably , yet naturally , to mankind 's origins and the childlike heart in himself. NOTES

1 Robert Go ldwater, Primitivism in Modern Art (New York : Vintage Books , 1967) , p. 192. 2 Roger Shattuck , The Banquet Years (New York : Random House , 1968) , p. 31. 3 Owen Jones , The Grammar of Ornament (London : Bernard Quartich, 1868) , pp . 15-16 , quoted in Go ldwater, p. 19. 4 E. T. Hamy , "La figure huma ine che z le sauvage et che z l'enfant ," L'Anthropologie , XIX (1908) , 385-386 , quoted in Go ldwater, p. 42. 5 One of the earliest psychological studies of children was Charles Darwin 's "A Biological Sketch of an Infant ," Mind , II (1897) , 286-294 . For other exam ples of the earliest stud ies of children see W. Dennis , ed ., Historical Readings in Developmental Psychology (New York : App leton-Century-Crofts , 1972) . 6 In 1906 , Die Kinder Kunst , a translation of Ricci 's book , was published in Germany . The interest in art education occurred earlier in England with studies done by Ruskin (1857) , Spencer (1861) , Sully (1874) and Cooke (1886) . See Dale B. Harris , Children 's Drawings as Me asures of Inte l lectual Growth (New York : Harcourt , Brace and World , 1963) .

7 Stanley Appelbaum , The Chicago World 's Fair of 1893 : A Photographic Record (New York : Dover Publi cations , 1980) , p. 62. 8 Go ldwater, pp . 67-68. 9 Herbert Read , Art Now (London : Faber and Faber , 1960) , p. 34 . 10 Go ldwater , p. 93. ll Out of this interest which began with the publi cation of Die Kinder Kunst (1906) , grew He lga Eng 's 87

Psyc hology of Children 's Drawings (1931) , still regarded as a notable study . 12 Goldwater, p. 124. 13 Goldwater, pp . 119-120. The linoleum block is still used in children 's art classes today . 14 Goldwater , p. 127. 15 Goldwater , p. 128 . 16 Jame s Smith Pierce , Paul Klee and Primitive Art (New York : Garland Publishing Co ., 1976) , p. 74. 17 Pierce , p. 77. 18 Joshua C. Taylor , Futurism (New York : Museum of Modern Art , 1961) , p. 14 . 19 Franz Marc , a member of the Blaue Re iter and co-editor of their Almanac , was influenced by the Futurists. See Taylor , p. 13. 20 Taylor , p. 14. 21 William Innes Homer , Alfred Steiglitz and the American Avant-Garde (Boston : New York Graphic Society , 1977) , p. 146 . Steiglitz followed this first showing of children 's art with three others in 1914 , 1915 and 1916 . 22 Robert Motherwell , Dada Painters and Poets (New York : Wittenborn , Schultz , 1951) , pp . 52-53 . Hugo Ball was also friends with Kandinsky and praised Klee for remaining ne ar to his first beginnings in his wo rks . 23 Frequent performances were given by the Dadas at the Cabaret Voltaire . These performances included the mimicking of animals , playing with words and sounds and exhibiting socially unacceptable behavior- all activities associated with childlike or childish behavior . Hugo Ball speaks of read ing sound poems and feel ing like a 10-year-old boy . Even the sinister aspect of some of the Dada activities parallels the cruelty that children sometimes exhibit toward animals or the ir peers . See Motherwe ll , p. xx . 24 Patrick Waldberg, Surrealism (New York : Mc -Graw Hill , 196 6) , p. 29. 88

25 Wa ldberg, p. 29. 26 Goldwater , pp . 216-222. 27 Jacques Dupin, Mirb (New York : Harry N. Abrams , 1962) ' p. 64. 28 Dupin, p. 96 .

2 9 · Marl· o B ucc1 , M1ro· ' ( London: Hamlyn Publishing Group , 1970) , p. 33. 30 Walter Erben , Joan Mirb (New York : George Braziller , 1959) , p. 117. 31 Erben , p. 3 2 . 32 James Thrall Soby , Joan Mirb (New York : Museum of Modern Art , 1962) , p. 60. 33 Peter Selz, The Work of Jean Dubuffet (New York : Museum of Modern Art , 1962) , p. 11. 34 Hans Pr1nz. h orn , The Art of the Insane (Berlin : Julius Springer , 1922) , in Jean Dubuffet: A Retrospec tive (New York : Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation , 1973) ' p. 17. 35 Lucy Lippard , "Ernst and Dubuffet ," Art Journal , 21, No . 4 (196 2) , 240. 36 Barbara Rose, "Jean Dubuffet: The Outsider as Insider ," Art News , 55 (April 1979) , 147. 37 Rudolf Arnheim , Art and Visual Perception (Los Angeles : Univ. of California Press , 1974) , p. 162 . 38 For some of the different categorizations see Betty Lark-Horowitz , Understanding Children 's Art for Better Teaching (Columbus , Ohio : Chas . E. Me rrill Books , 1967) , June King McFee , Preparation for Art (San Fran cisco , Wadsworth Publishing Co ., 1961) , Laura H. Chap man , Approac he s to Art in Education (New York : Har courst, Brace , Jovanovich, 1978) , Wilhelm Viola, Child Art (London : Univ . of London Press , 1944) , Helga Eng , The Psychology of Children 's Drawing (New York : Harcourt , Brace & Co . , 1931) , Jacque line Goodnow , Children Drawing (Cambr idge , Mass : Harvard Univ . Press , 1977) , Hilda Present Lewi s, Child Art , The Beginnings of Self-Affirmation (Berkeley : Diablo Press, 1973) . 89

39 Helga Eng , The Psychology of Children 's Draw ings (New York : Harcourt , Brace & Co . , 1931) , p. 23. 40 Viktor Lowenfeld & W. Lambert Brittain , Creative and Mental Growth, 4th ed ., (New York : Macmillan, 1964) , pp. 95-100. 41 Rhoda Kellogg, Analyzing Children 's Art (Palo Alto , California: National Press Books , 1969) , p. 23. 42 Kellogg, pp . 108-110. 43 Kellogg, p. 61 . 44 Kellogg , p. 67. 45 Laura H. Chapman , A pproac h es t o Ar t ln. Ed uc a t'lOn (New York : Harcourt, Brace , Jovanovich, 1978) , p. 144 . 46 Eng , p. 105. 47 Arnheim , p. 168 . 48 E. H. Gombr ich , Meditations on a Hobby Horse and Other Essays on the Theory of Art (New York : Phaidon Publishers, 1963) , p. 11 . 49 Goodnow , p. 58 . 50 Goodnow , p. 10 . 51 Jerome Kagan and Judith Lemkin , "Form , Color and Size in Chi ldren 's Conceptual Behavior ," Child Develop ment , XXXII, No . 1 (1961) , 25-28. 52 Lowenfeld , p. 138. 53 Lowenfeld , p. 142 . 54 Herbert Read , Art Now (London : Faber and Faber , 1960) quoted in Hilda Present Lewis, Child Art , The Beginnings of Self-Affirmation (Berkeley : Diablo Press , 1973) , p. l. 55 Lowenfeld , pp . 186-187. 56 Go ldwater , p. 204 . 57 Miche l Leiris, The Prints of Joan Mir6 (New York : Curt Valentin , 1947) , p. 2 quoted in Go ldwater , p. 204. 90

58 Goldwater , p. 204. 59 James Johnson Sweeney , The Mir6 Atmo sphere (New York : George Wittenborn, 1959) , p. 81. 60 Marg1t. Rowell, Mir6 (New York : Harry N. Abrams , 1971) 1 P• 5. 61 Rowell, p. 5. 62 Goldwater , p. 205. 63 Lowenfeld 's and Brittain 's study states that adults who have no formal training and paint in a naive style , paint in a manner simi lar to children in the dawning realism stage . We know that Miro ad mired the Douanier , Henri Rousseau. So , perhaps some of the influences in the early works come from Rousseau 's vision . However , at the same time , Mirb could also have been drawing inspiration from works by chi ldren in the dawning realism stage of development . See Lowenfeld , p. 184. 64 It is necessary to remember that even though the first part of this developmental period is termed the scribbling stage , as the child approaches four years of age he begins to make some recognizable forms . These forms usually emerge from the scribbles and may exist alongside them. The scribbling stage begins with scribbles but moves into very basic form-making. 65 Goldwater, p. 206. 66 Dupin . 8 2. 67 Dupin , pp . 82-83. 68 Go ldwater, p. 207. 69 The star appears in Harlequ in 's Carnival (1924- 25) , Sourire de rna Blonde (1924) and The Hermitage (1924) , to mention only a few early examples . 70 According to Rhoda Kellogg 's classification of children 's scribbles , the type of star that Miro uses would be a radial . See Kellogg , pp . 86-93. 71 . A very b a 1 ance d verson o f t h'1s star appears 1n Dialogue s of the Insects (1924-25) and The Cat and the String (1925) . A number of the works entitled 91

Painting (1925) also make use of this radial star . In certain cases , the form fills at least half of the canvas . 72 Certain of the Landscape s from 1926-27 contain examples of this particular form . 73 Goldwater makes reference to this same type of figural representation. He cites At the Bottom of the Shell (1948) , Cry of the Gazelle at Daybreak and the Paintings of 1950 as being other works including this type of figure . Goldwater , p. 207. 74 See Chapter Two , p. 23. 75 This type of wide-open eye appears in paintings dated from the 1930 's. It appears mo st profusely be ginning with a series of paintings done on masonite in the summer of 1936. From that time , this eye type be comes a regular form in Mira 's work , combined with the dot-type eye .

76 . A ser1e s o f very free paintings done in 1925 , mo st of which are simp ly entitled Painting , illustrate the early use of mottled ground . 77 The child conceives of space as that which is around him. See Chapter Two , p. 24. 78 In wo rks such as The Hermitage (1924) and The Trap (1924) , Mirb uses a dotted or broken line to in dicate the trail of a shooting star and urination . In a series of paintings on prepared grounds , dated 1925 , Mirb again uses the dotted or broken line to suggest mo vement. In fact , the broken line goes on to even tually become a spiral in certain works about this time . 79 The dots as space filler occur in The Star Rises , The Birds Fly, People Dance (1954) and Festival of Phosphorescent Circles at Daybreak (1954) to mention a few in this series. 80 This wavering line of Mir6 's is very pronounced in a series entitled The Circus Horse of 1925-27. Line appears to be the predominant aspect of these works . 81 Gualtieri di San Lazzaro , ed . , Homage to Joan Mi r6 (New York : Tudor Publishing Company , 1972) , n. pag . 82 Dubuffet 's speech, "Anticultural Positions ," 92 was given in Chicago on December 20, 1951. The English text has been published many times , including Dubuffet and the Anticulture (New York : Richard D. Feigen , 1969) . 83 Goldwater , p. 209. 84 Goldwater , p. 210. 85 Selz , p. 14. 86 Go ldwater states that Dubuffet 's art is an art of the city , even in his landscapes. Goldwater, p. 213. 87 Goldwater notes that the crowded aspects of Dubuffet 's work is what makes it appear urban . Go ld water , p. 212. 88 Daniel Cordier feels that Dubuffet proceeds with his portraits "the same way as those naive drafts men who only represent individuals by generalized signs in which they alone can detect resemblance ." Noting the simi lar ity of approach, he adds , "children draw this way and can recognize someone or something in whatever they do ." Daniel Cordier , The Drawings of Jean Dubuffet (New York : George Braziller , 1960) , n. pag. 89 Selz, p. 97. 90 This destructive element is often re ferred to as a 'brutal ' one . See Harold Rosenberg, "The Art World : Primitive ala Mode ," The New Yorker , 44 (Oct. 27 , 1968) , 145-150 . Dubuffet , himself, states that the line in the Corps de Dame series was used in such a way as to "prevent the figure from taking a specific shape , so that it would be ma intained as a general concept in a state of immateriality ." "Corps de Dame " in George Limbour , Tableau bon levain a vous de cuire la pate (Paris : Rene Drouin , 1953) , p. 94 . 91 Thomas Me sser notes that within Dubuffet 's wo rk "the desire to communicate is almost simulta neous ly negated by the compulsion to hide , to cover ." Perhaps this aspect could apply as well to the art of children in the dawning realism stage , when conflict on many leve ls exists. Thomas M. Me s ser , "Dubuf fet 's Paradoxes : Things Are Both Black and White ," Art News , 72 (May , 19 7 3) , 8 0. 92 Peter Selz has documented Dubuffet 's interest in graffiti , attributing the popularity of graffiti 93 to Dubuffet and the photographer , . Brassai, who origi nally called attention to it. Brassai made the fol lowing comments about children 's wall scratchings : "We are worlds away from the sweetness of child art . All becomes earnest, raw, harsh, barbaric . It is usually an isolated being , a prey to anxious con flicts, whose hands scratch these images. Childhood is not golden age , but the age of torment. A whole lifetime is sometimes not enough to wear away its scars. The tragic and even hideous masks bear witness to the suffering enclosed in the soul of the child . " Brassai , "The Art of the Wall ," The Saturday Book , v. 18 (New York : Macmi llan , 1958) , p. 245, quoted in Selz, p. 166 . 93 Dubuffet shares with Dada and Surrealist artists an interest in automatism, as does Mir6 . An outgrowth of this interest is the use of scribbles, employed with quite different results by both artists . See Selz, p. 22. 94 In my own research and work with children in art education for the past thirteen years , I have found this to be true . Supporting evidence can be found in Angiola R. Churchill , Art for Pre-Adolescents (New York : McGraw-Hill, 1970) . It is also at about age nine and ten that the science curriculum in school be gins to deal with plants , plant growth , animal and plant classication and basic reproduction . See James Barufaldi , George Ladd & Al ice Mo ses , Health Science Level 5 (Lexington , Massachusetts : D. C. Heath , 1981) . 95 Dubuffet has spoken of his primary desire to "amuse and interest the man in the street ." Dubuffet , Prospectus aux amateurs de tout ge nre (Paris : Galli mard , 1946) , p. 17. His work has also been described as "conceived in terms of the ordinary man. " Jean Dubuffet : A Retrospective , p. 23. 96 Younger children quickly adopt the stereoty pical tulip form as well as the circle with a center as forms for flowers . It has been argued that this is because of the ste reotyped images that they are shown at school . In any case , as they grow older and curiosity about the environment develops , the stereo types can be discarded as they observe nature more closely . See Lowenfeld , p. 207 , concerning details of nature. 97 Selz, p. 102. 94

98 Dubuffet speaks about his fascination with ma terials and techniques that reflects a child 's con stant fascination with the new and his short attention span : "Only new things are interesting. But they 're difficult fish to catch. You have to take them by surprise--by luck or by accident. That 's why I'm al ways after the easiest , quickest techniques , because they enable you to catch things more quickly before they lose their inventiveness. " Michael Peppiatt , "The Warring Complexities of Jean Dubuffet ," Art News , 76 (May , 1977) , 69. 99 Go ldwater , p. 212. 100 Meyer Shapiro , "The Liberating Quality of Avant-Garde Art ," Art News , 56 , No . 4 (Summer , 1957) , 41. 101 Go ldwater, p. 251. 102 Erich Neumann , Art and the Creative Unconscious , (Princeton : Princeton Univ. Press , 1959) , p. 181. 103 Shattuck , p. 332. 104 Howard Gardner , The Arts and Human Development (New York : John Wiley & Sons, 1973) , p. 221. 105 Juan Perucho , Joan Miro y Cataluna (Barcelona : Ediciones Poligrafa, 196 8) , p. 246 . 106 Lowenfeld , p. 120. 107 Shattuck , p. 341. 108 Miro himself speak s of experiencing "golden flashes of the mind" in a letter written around 1925. See Bucci , p. 30. 109 Erben , p. 19. llO Edouard Roditi , "Interview with Miro ," Arts Magazine , 33, No . 1 (Oct. , 1958) , 43. lll Goldwater , p. 255. ll2 Joan Miro , "Je travaille cornrne un jardinier . conversation with Yvon Tallandier ," XXe Siecle , No . 1 (Feb . , 1959) , 4 . 95

113 Ernst Vatter , Religioese Plastik der Naturvoelker (Frankfurt am Main : Frankfurter-verlag , 1926) , p. 5 quoted in Goldwater , p. 39. 114 Jean Dubuffet , Prospectus aux amateur s de tout ge nre (Paris : Gall imard , 1946) , p. 17 quoted in Selz , p. 10 . 115 Peppiatt , p. 69. 116 Selz, p. 102. 117 Me sser , p. 80. 118 Me sser , p. 80. 119 Cordier , n. pag . 120 Go ldwater , p. 213. 121 Selz, p. 80. 122 Goldwater, pp . 252-254. 123 Shapiro , p. 38 . SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Appelbaum, Stanley . The Chicago World 's Fair of 1893: A Photographic Record . New York : Dover Publica tions , 1980.

Arnhe im , Rudolf. Art and Visual Perception . Los Angeles : Un iv. of California Press, 1974.

Barufaldi , James , George Ladd and Alice Mo ses. Health Science Level 5. Lexington , Massachusetts : D. C. Heath, 1981.

Bucc i, Mario . Mir6 . London : Hamlyn Publishing Group , 1970.

Chapman , Laura H. Approaches to Art in Education . New York : Harcourt, Brace , Jovanovich, 1978.

Churchill , Angiola . Art for Pre-Adolescents . New York : McGraw-Hill, 1970.

Cordier , Daniel. The Drawings of Jean Dubuffet . New York : George Braziller , 1960.

Dennis , W. , ed . Historical Re adings in Deve lopmental Psyc ho logy . New York : Appleton-Century-Crofts , 1972.

Dubuffet , Jean . Prospectus aux amateur s de tout genre . Paris : Gall imard , 1946 .

Dupin , Jacques . Miro . New York : Harry N. Abrams , 1961.

Eng , He lga . The Psychology of Children 's Drawings . New York : Harcourt , Brace , 1931.

Erben , Walter . Joan Miro . New York : George Braziller , 1959.

Gardner , Howard . The Arts and Human Development . New York : John Wiley and Sons , 1973. 97

Goldwater , Robert . Primitivism in Modern Art . New York : Vintage Books , 1967.

Gombrich, E. H. Meditations on a Hobby Horse and Other Essays on the Theory of Art . New York : Phaidon Publishers , 1963.

Goodnow , Jacqueline . Chi ldren Drawing . Cambridge , Massachusetts : Harvard Univ. Press , 1977.

Hamy , E. T. "La figure humaine chez le sauvage et chez l'enfant. " L'Anthropo logie , XIX (1908) , 385-386.

Harris, Dale B. Children 's Drawings as Me asures of In tel lectual Growth. New York : Harcourt , Brace and World , 1963.

Homer , William Innes . Alfred Steiglitz and the American Avant-Garde . Boston : New York Graphic Society , 1977.

Jean Dubuffet: A Retrospective . New York : Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation , 1973.

Jones , Owen . The Grammar of Ornament . London : Bernard Quaritc h, 1868.

Kagan , Jerome and Judith Lemkin. "Form , Color and Size in Children 's Conceptual Behavior ." Child Deve lopment , XXXII, No . 1 (1961), 25-28.

Kellogg , Rhoda . Analyzing Chi ldren 's Art . Palo Alto , California: National Press Books , 1969.

Leiris , Michel . The Prints of Joan Miro . New York : Curt Valentin, 1947.

Lewi s, Hilda Present . Child Art, The Beginning of Self-Af firmation . Berkeley : Diablo Press , 1973.

Limbour , George . Tableau bon levain a vous de cuire la pa te . Paris : Rene Drouin , 1953.

Lippard , Lucy . "Ernst and Dubuffet ." Art Journal, 21, No . 4 ( 196 2) , 2 4 0-2 4 5 .

Lowenfeld , Viktor and W. Lambert Brittain . Creative and Mental Growth. 4th ed . New York : Macmillan , 1964 .

Me sser , Thomas M. "Dubuf fet 's Paradoxes : Things Are Both Black and White ." Art News , 72 (May , 1973) , 80-82. 98

Miro , Joan . "Je travaille corrune un j ardinier ... , conversation with Yvon Tallandier." XXe Siecle , No . 1 (February , 1959) .

Mo therwell, Robert. Dada Painters and Poets. New York : Wittenborn , Schultz , 1951.

Neumann, Erich. Art and the Creative Unconscious . Princeton : Princeton University Press , 1959.

Peppiatt, Michael. "The Warring Complexities of Jean Dubuffet ." Art News , 76 (May , 1977) , 68-70.

Perucho , Juan . Joan Mir6 y Cataluna. Barcelona: Ed itiones Poligrafa , 1968.

Pierce , James Smith. Paul Klee and Primitive Art . New York : Garland �ublishing Company , 1976 .

Prinzhorn , Hans. The Art of the Insane . Berlin: Julius Springer , 1922.

Read , Herbert. Art Now . London : Faber and Faber , 1960.

Roditi, Edouard . "Interview with Miro. " Arts Magazine , 33, No . 1 (Octobe r, 1958) , 38-43.

Rose , Barbara. "Jean Dubuffet : The Outsider as Insider ." Art News , 53 (April, 1979) , 146-155 .

Ro senberg, Harold . "The Art World : Primitive a la Mode ." The New Yorker , 44 (October 22, 1968) , 145-150.

Rowell , Margit . Miro . New York : Harry N. Abrams , 1971.

San Lazzaro , Gualtieri di , ed . Homage to Joan Miro . New York : Tudor Publishing Company , 1972 .

Selz, Peter . The Work of Jean Dubuffet . New York : Museum of Modern Art , 1962.

Shapiro , Meyer. "The Liberating Quality of Avant Garde Art. " Art News , 56 , No . 4 (Summer , 1957) , 36-43.

Shattuck , Roger . The Banquet Years . New York : Random House , 1968 .

Soby , James Thrall. Joan Miro . New York : Mu seum of Modern Art , 1962. 99

Sweeney , James Johnson . The Mirb Atmosphere . New York : George Wittenbo rn , 1959.

Tay lor, Joshua C. Futurism. New York : Museum of :todern Art , 1961.

Waldberg, Patrick . surrealism. New York : McGraw-Hill , !966. ILLUSTRATIONS 101

Fig. l. Gestalts which represent the probable evo lution of human forms from earlier scribbles . The bas ic scribbles at the bo ttom lead to (2) Diagrams ; (3) Aggregates ; (4) Suns; (5) Sun faces and figures ; (6) Human s with he ad-top markings ; (7) Humans without head-top markings ; (8 ) Armless humans ; (9) Humans with varied torsos ; (10) Humans with arms attached to the torso ; (ll) Re lative ly complete human images . 102

Fig. 2. Top Group : Sun Faces (3 and 4 years of age) ; Bo ttom Group : Suns with center marks (3 and 4 years of age ) . 103

Fig. 3. Child , age five , Drawing, crayon and wa terco lor . 104

Fig. 4. Mir6 , Woman with Blond Armpit Combing Her Hair By the Light of the Stars , 1940 , gouache and oil wash on paper . 105

··.� --;6,.\

. , oil on canvas Painting , 1930 Fig. 5. Miro, 106

Fig. 6. Child , age six , Painting , crayon and waterco lor. 107

Fig. 7. Mira , Woman 's Head and Bird on a Fine Blue Dav , 1963 , paint on bo ard . lOB

Fig. 8. Child , age four or five , Painting , tempera . 109

. ' '·: :. �� ..

Fig. 9. Miro , Personnage Be fore the Sun , 1968 , oil on canvas . 110

Fig. 10. Miro , Woman and Birds Before the Moon , 1947, color stencil . 111

•

Fig. ll. Miro , The Mo on , 1948 , oil on canvas . 112

Fig. 12. Child , age five , Drawing, co lored marker . 113

Fig. 13 . Miro , Man and Woman in Front of a Landscape , 1960 , oil on cardboard . 114

Fig. 14. Mira , Figure and Bird , 1963, paint on board . 115

Fig. 15. Child , age 5, Painting , tempera . 116

Fig. 16 . Miro , Coiffeur Disheveled by the Flight of the Constellations , 1954 , oil on tapestry . 117

Fig. 17. Chi ld , age six, Painting , tempera . 118

-/·��#:· . i I' i \ (� ' , ) .� -> il / ; : /� / ; �7 . :··.· ;: : . i! �- -_:

Fig. 18 . Scribbles by children , age 26 months to 32 mo nths . 119

--- _.. -...- ..._ _ . ' -- /'

Fig. 19. Mire , Sketches on letters to Alexander Calder, c. 1958 . 12Q

/ .· · "" :'./ < .. / - --::::{ '( I '---...:.. ./' I __ _ _ :6_:::------· - -�

Fig . 20. Child , age four , Drawing , ballpoint pen . 121

Fig . 21. Dubuffet, Me tro , 1943 , oil on canvas . 122

Fig. 22 . Child , age eleven , Painting of the New York Subway , tempera. 123

Fig. 23. Dubuf fet , View of Paris with Dog , 1943 , gouache . 124

Fig. 24 . Chi ld , age eight , Painting of a City , tempera . 125

Fig. 25. Dubuffet, left : Marcel Jouhandeau , Wild Buck , 1946 , pencil ; right : Michel Tapie , Little Show of Wrinkles , 1946 , pencil. 126

Fig. 26 . Child , age nine , Painting of a person 's face , crayon and waterco lor . 127

Fig. 27. Dubuffet, Table Chargee D'Objets (Table Covered with Ob jects), 1951, india ink . 128

Fig. 28. Dubuffet, Pays age s aux Filigr anes (Filigree Landscape ), 1952 , india ink . 129

Fig. 29. Child , age eight , Work repre senting bulbs growing underground , watercolor and marker . 130

Fig. 30 . Child , age eleven , Drawing , marker . 131

Fig. 31. Child , age nine , Crayon res ist painting of butterflies and plants , crayon a�d tempera . 132

Fig. 32 . Dubuffet, The Garden of Bibi Trompette , 1955, butterfly wings and go uache . 133

";,.·

... - . : __; �.

..,..· � -- ......

Fig. 33. Dubuffet , Cow , 1954 , india ink . 134

Fig. 34. Child , age ten , Painting of milking a cow , tempera.

136

Fig. 36 . Dubuffet, Prowling Dog , 1955 , oil on canvas .