JUVENILE ART

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 230, 27 June 1944, Page 4

JUVENILE ART

British Collection At National Gallery More than casual notice should be given to the- collection of pictures painted by British children between the ages of 3 and 16. and now open to the public at the National Gallery, D.1.C., Building, Wellington. The first Impression one gets is of the note of radical colour to be seen on every wall. Children love gay tones, and note how their eyes unconsciously measure out like or dislike to this or that tone combination. That is, perhaps, the very beginning of appreciation of art —the desire to make something that pleases the senses, ocular aud otherwise. Then it is good to see how form begins with the very young, expressed on the walls by fantastic ships, with enormous portholes, ploughing through impossible seas; a head and - body without legs (or are they arms?), meadows that reach to the sky: and animals, usually somewhat approximating nature in colour, by the way. looking like nothing on the farm or off it. But in the higher grades, if one traces the pictures ou the walls in the painters age sequence, one finds that colour and form, though still as gay and irresponsible as any Van Gogh, begin to grow together with some idea of logical intention, till, among the pictures painted by youngsters iu their early ’teens, one can perceive the beginnings of artistic possibilities. There are horses galloping wildly o'er the downs, sleek tigers in football jerseys, owlish-looking dogs, and ever-so-sly cats; and houses that might have been iu an earthquake (or was it bomb blast that did it?). The exhibition includes some creditable pictures by New Zealand children, aud also a display of handicraft from the younger children. Some of these products are from those called "problem children,” those who in some wavs are sub-normal re: who have temporarily lost the way. In one school such a child was tested out in various ways, without success; then, when almost given up as well-nigh hopeless, the child was given a lump of plasticene. and left to work out its own salvation. The result was almost amazing, for that child turned out a most creditable niece of modelling —the bust of a man in uniform.. 1 hough it stands only about five inches in height, the bust is admirably proportioned./Ihe liead well shaped, the face boldly characteristic, with the stiff braided collar standing out iu relief from the curve ot the neck. It. is iust another illustration of the inscrutable complexity ot the child, and the experiment shows the value ot the endeavour to “place" such children.