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 © The Author 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 by 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 by 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 can- vas , 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 impor- tant 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 ex- citement 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 ethno- logist, 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 .