review of Artful Scribbles the Significance of Childrens Drawings
Books 157 Out of This Century: Confessions of an Fine art Addict. Peggy Guggenheim, Universe Books, New York, 1979. 396 pp.. illus. $17.l.ISBN:0-87663337 -viii. Reviewed by Joan B. Altabe* This is not an altogether new book, in spite of its publication engagement-the first half being published in 1946as Out o f This Century and the second one-half in 1960 every bit Confessions o f an Art Addict. Xiii pages of 'conclusion', while expressly written for this publication, remain a dubious rationale for the new edition. As for the book'south first half, I can do no better than to quote Katherine Kuh's review of the original printing wherein shecalled information technology a "relentlessly honest compulsive recital of her own corrupt life". Proof of this honesty is the fact that Ms Guggenheim included this review in her 'updated' edition. Included, too, was an Everett McManus review (of the original printing of Confessions o f an Art Addict) to which I subscribe; that is, that the book "is not the autobiography of an art connoisseur". Indeed, a more than apt title might have been Confessionsofan Creative person Addict, because Ms Guggenheim'due south interest in art is not nearly every bit well described as her involvement in the several artists (writers as well as painters) with whom she had liaisons. Numerous lover'due south quarrels are noted, while her attending to art, perse, remains inexplicably brief; eastward.g. "Htlion gave a very moving lecture". Not a hint of what the lecture was nigh. Moreover, although she says that her "nigh honorable achievement" was promoting Pollack'due south works, when asked to write a piece on Pollack, she wrote she "never felt upwards to information technology ..." this, in the light of her exhaustive documentation of her private life! It is the volume'south gossipy attribute that renders it nigh useless to artists and teachers. Artful Scribbles: The Significance of Children'southward Drawings. Howard Gardner. Bones Books, New York, 1980. 280 pp.. illus. Cloth. ISBN: 0465 -00451-2. Reviewed by G. Westward.Granger** The author wants to determine why children's drawing follows its feature form, the relations betwixt drawing and other aspectsof psychological evolution, and the aesthetic status of children's drawings. In Chapter i he tells u.s. that the basic scaffoldingfor hisstudy was firmly established by 19th century pedagogues who quickly "discerned strikingly similar development across thousands of miles and dozens of cultures" (p. 10).These developments include scribbles during the second year, geometric forms and patterns (including the 'enigmatic mandala') by the third and 4th, a 'pivotal moment' during *421 West Olive St., Long Beach, NY 11561, U.S.A. **University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE, U.K. the third, fourth or fifth when "rhe[my italics] child achievesfor the first time a recognizable depiction of some thing in the world-in most cases, the ubiquitous 'tadpole man' who stands for Everyman" (p. xi). Subsequently reaching a 'elevation of artistry' by the end of the preschool period, uninhibited graphic expression begins to wane, every bit the kid becomes preoccupied with language, games, social relations-or a desire to accomplish photographic realism. But in a select few, either blest with special talent or possessed of no alternative means for self-expression, does "the exhuberant high point of earlier years" resurface. All this has been a description of children'south drawings which nigh experts endorse. The snag is that this clarification doesn't band true, as the author acknowledges in Affiliate 6. What is surprising in a volume which seemingly intends to be scientific(cf. p. xiv,p. 257) is that the writer does not reach this negative conclusion from a disquisitional assay of published evidence, but from a chat he happened to have with Alexander Alland, a cultural anthropologist, who challenges the 'universal picture' of children's drawings offered by experts like Rhoda Kellogg. Alland "finds no bear witness for such purportedly ubiquitous elements as mandalas and circles; by the same token, the age norms mostly reported bear petty resemblance to those uncovered on his own expeditions" (p. 159). What is even more than puzzling is that, having apparently accustomed that "many generalizations almost children's art seem suspect" and, by implication, that his basic scaffolding is shaky and...
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Source: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/599704
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