Winold Reiss, Elise J. McDougald, 1925. Public Domain, Via Wikimedia Commons.

Helen Levitt, Graffiti: Chalk Drawing of Figure with Double Pupils, New York City, c.1940, gelatin silver print. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

American photographer Helen Levitt is known for her documentary and candid style street photography of everyday life. One of her recurring subjects is children at play. She also captured their whimsical works of art, such as this 1940s photograph of a children's chalk drawing in New York City.

Holy Night Ruthie Aybar 3rd Grade USA

Source: The Henry Schaefer-Simmern Collection, Children's Museum of Art, New York (CMA1264.20)

The lineage of many popular educational materials used in schools today can be traced through art history. In a post called "The Art of Child's Play," I wrote about several examples of modern and contemporary artists creating educational toys and learning materials. Read it on Artfully Learning: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2022/03/24/the-art-of-childs-play/

Puppets by Paul Klee named the Philistine, Matchbox Spirit, and the Crowned Poet — Source: Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (CC BY-SA 4.0).Puppets by Paul Klee named the Old Man, the Devil with Ringed Glove, and the Monk — Source: Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (CC BY-SA 4.0).1) 

2) Puppets by Paul Klee named the Ghost of a Scarecrow, Electrical Spook, and Mr Death — Source: Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (CC BY-SA 4.0).

3) Puppets by Paul Klee named the Philistine, Matchbox Spirit, and the Crowned Poet — Source: Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (CC BY-SA 4.0).

“And yet for all their fixedness, the figures’ power lies in their yet being infinitely accessible, innocent, and welcoming things; they are children who have survived their childhood, grown old, but retained something of that early state. They are representatives of some world that belongs at once to children and adults, and to some more mysterious world they share within creation. Klee wrote in his diary of 1901: “The future slumbers in human beings and needs only to be awakened. It cannot be created. That is why even a child knows about the erotic.”2″

Puppets by Paul Klee named the Big-Eared Clown, Self-Portrait (of Klee), and the White-Haired Eskimo — Source: Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (CC BY-SA 4.0).

via

I recently wrote about Khor Ean Ghee and other modern and contemporary artists and designers who have created whimsical designs for playgrounds. You can read my piece here: "Form, Function and Fun: Playgrounds as Art Education."

The Dragon Playground was designed in 1979 by Khor Ean Ghee, an in-house designer from HDB (Housing and Development Board’s) inspired by Chinese dragons, very popular among Chinese in Singapore.

The Ang Mo Kio Dragon Playground is one of two remaining playgrounds in Singapore with this design. The other one is located in Toa Payoh.

https://www.kopitravel.com/Asia/Singapore/Kids-Details?kidsId=1010

#singapore #singapur #kopitravel #travel #asia #visitsingapore #exploresingapore #splendid_urban #cityphotography #cityscape #dragon #playground #dragonplayground #historic #historico #angmokio #hdb #hdbsingapore (at Ang Mo Kio, Singapore)

I love Fujio Kito's photographs of playgrounds around Japan. There are so many artful and thoughtful designs for play spaces and structures throughout the Japanese cultural landscape.

東京都狛江市多摩川住宅ニ号棟

中央公園

※多摩川住宅ニ号等も建替えが決定しました。

★多摩川住宅の写真展をしたいので、調布市・狛江市で団地の公園遊具の写真展を開催できるスペースを探してます。オススメの場所などありましたらご連絡ください！

#公園遊具　#公園　#playground #park #playsculpture #artwork #photoism #tokyo #japantravel

#多摩川住宅　#多摩川　#団地　#石の山　#調布　#狛江

First image: Irving Kriesberg, (no title) drawing from the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History, c. 1929, graphite on paper. Collection of the Irving Kriesberg Estate Foundation. Second image: Irving Kriesberg, The Victim, 1994, oil on canvas. Collection of the Irving Kriesberg Estate Foundation.

Irving Kriesberg developed an aptitude for art at an early age by filling notebooks with drawings of museum taxidermy he encountered at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. This early experience of biological rendering made a lasting impression on Kriesberg, who manifested his own animal imagery and phenomenal aesthetic environments throughout his career.

The untitled graphite drawing of a leopard seizing a bird in its claws is from around 1929, which would mean that Irving was about 10 years old when he drew it; the painting, titled The Victim, is from 1994, when Irving was 75. Both compositions feature a large cat pouncing on a bird.

It is amazing to see how interests, explorations and influences from childhood manifest creatively throughout the course of one's life. This is an apt insight into artistic development of a professional artist. Read more about this phenomenon in my latest blog post "The Childhood Origins of Working Artists."

Hugh Hayden, Brier Patch, 2022. Installed at Madison Square Park in New York City. Photograph by Yasunori Matsui, courtesy of Madison Square Park Conservancy.

Read about Hugh Hayden's thorny and artful critique of inequity within the public education system in NYC (and by extension, the U.S.A at large) in the post "Into the weeds of public education" on Artfully Learning: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2022/05/07/into-the-weeds-of-public-education/

Birch bark letter no. 202: spelling lessons and drawings by Onfim (aged 6 or 7), c.1240–1260. Source: Wikimedia commons

Find out more about this drawing in my Artfully Learning post: "Ancient Art Education"

One of Paul Klee’s teaching notes on pictorial creation, reproduced from ‘Paul Klee: Life and Work,’ the authoritative Klee overview, back in print from @hatjecantzverlag⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ The many books on Paul Klee (1879-1940) published over the years should not obscure the fact that there has been no new, comprehensive Klee overview since Will Grohmann’s oft-reprinted 1954 monograph. With 'Paul Klee: Life and Work,’ the @zentrumpaulklee has set out to fill this gap, drawing on a wealth of new resources including the Klee family’s archives, much of which is published here for the first time.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Life and work are truly integrated in this massive, 344-page volume: Klee’s vast body of work is surveyed chronologically, as the book narrates his life alongside the abundant reproductions of drawings, paintings, watercolors, sculptures, puppets and numerous archival documents and photographs (nearly 500 reproductions in total).⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ The book divides Klee’s career into eight periods: “Childhood and Youth”; “Munich and the Encounter with the Avant Garde”; “World War I and the Breakthrough to Success”; “At the Bauhaus in Weimar”; “Master of Modern Art”; “The Move to Dusseldorf and the Nazi Rise to Power”; “First Years of Emigration in Bern”; and “Final Years.”⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ The result of many years of research and labor, this magisterial publication demonstrates conclusively why Klee numbers among the most influential and best-loved artists of the past 100 years.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Read more via linkinbio.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ #paulklee #klee #bauhhaus #pictorialcreation #pedagogy #teachingnotes #abstraction https://www.instagram.com/p/CNVmXWQppb_/?igshid=1a3e8wtaf3oag

I wrote about Asawa's journey to become a renowned artist and art educator in a post titled "Weaving Art with Life." Read it now on Artfully Learning: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2022/11/15/weaving-art-with-life/

Ruth Asawa teaching paper folding, ca. 1980s [© Estate of Ruth Asawa]