ABSTRACT
How and why do children make art? Is it simply one of the activities of childhood meant to emulate the adult world? Is it a way to express independence and cultivate ways of thinking? Is it a vehicle of experimentation to learn about the world? And what purpose does it serve? Are child artists cyphers, as the Romantics thought? Are they the path to the “original source” as Gauguin believed? This chapter follows the interwoven threads of thought and theory on the subject of child art in Western culture from as early as the fourteenth century to the present. From the interest in how children see and perceive to whether art made by children is actually art at all, touching on artists such as Matisse and Picasso, and writers such as Cizek and Arnheim, this chapter serves as an overview of a complex and fascinating subject.
