To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood

by Naima J. Keith (Primary Contributor), Oscar Murillo (Primary Contributor), Sable Elyse Smith (Primary Contributor)

How artists from Paul Klee and Mierle Laderman Ukeles to Faith Ringgold and Deborah Roberts have explored childhood themes of innocence, spontaneity and storytelling Artists have long been inspired by children―by their imagination, creativity and unique ways of seeing and being in the world―and have made work that depicts and involves children as collaborators, that represents or mimics their ways of drawing or telling stories, that highlights their unique cultures, and that addresses ideas of innocence and spontaneity closely associated with children. To Begin Artists and Childhood surveys how artists have reflected on and contributed to notions of childhood from the early 20th century to the present. The works in To Begin Again offer distinctive viewpoints and experiences, revealing how time and place, economics and race, and representation and aesthetics fundamentally shape how we experience and understand early development. The catalog underscores that while there is no single, uniform idea of childhood, it is nevertheless the ground upon which so much of society is built, negotiated and imagined.
Artists include : Ann Agee, John Ahearn, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Francis Alÿs, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Brian Belott, Jordan Casteel, Lenka Clayton, Allan Rohan Crite, Henry Darger, Karon Davis, Robert Gober, Jay Lynn Gomez, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Duane Hanson, Mona Hatoum, Sharon Hayes, Ekua Holmes, Mary Kelly, Paul Klee, Justine Kurland, Helen Levitt, Tau Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Oscar Murillo, Rivane Neuenschwander, Berenice Olmedo, Charles Ray, Faith Ringgold, Deborah Roberts, Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Rachel Rose, Heji Shin, Sable Elyse Smith, Becky Suss, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Cathy Wilkes and Carmen Winant.

279 pages, Hardcover

Published January 3, 2023

Reviews

[Olga Zilberbourg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A smart and gorgeous companion to an art exhibit, full of powerful art and essays about the contemporary reevaluations of children's art. Reacting to Modernists' appropriation and oversimplification of children's art, contemporary artists and thinkers have completely reevaluated the meaning of children's drawings and paintings and have entered into a collaborative and fruitful dialogue with it without taking away what agency children show in their work. So many fascinating perspectives! I particularly appreciated that the essays, some of which were deeply theoretical, were at the same time short and easily digestible. I read this book from cover to cover in the matter of a morning!