Jonathan Lerman: The Drawings of a Boy with Autism

by Lyle Rexer

The remarkable story of Jonathan Lerman, a young artist with autism, seized the attention of the art world at the 2002 Outsider Art Fair. Coverage by The New York Times, The Today Show, 48 Hours , and other international media has brought him into millions of homes across the country. This selection of fifty drawings, with a text by critic Lyle Rexer, presents the full range and astonishing growth of Jonathan's extraordinary talent. Diagnosed with autism and at first scarcely able to communicate, Jonathan began drawing at age ten. By age twelve, his drawings were exhibited in a solo exhibition at K. S. Art in New York. Working with the assurance of a Matisse, the speed of a Picasso, and the humor of a born cartoonist, Jonathan has created an unforgettable body of work. His drawings include portraits of actual figures as well as figures from his own imagination, all rendered with great acuity. These drawings overturn the stereotype of the so-called savant artist as an unchanging talent sprung to life fully formed. Instead, they detail the restless experimentation and rapid growth of an artistic sensibility. Jonathan The Drawings of a Boy with Autism is a book not just for art lovers but for everyone who values the rich diversity of the creative imagination. In addition to an illuminating essay on Jonathan's work, the book also contains an afterword by Caren Lerman, Jonathan's mother, describing the sudden appearance of his talent and the challenges and satisfactions of raising a gifted child with autism. 50 b/w illustrations.

Genres: Nonfiction

112 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2002

About the author

Lyle Rexer was born in 1951. He was educated at the University of Michigan, Columbia University, and Merton College, Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Columbia University. He is the author of several books, including Photography’s Antiquarian Avant-Garde: The New Wave in Old Processes (2002); Jonathan Lerman: The Drawings of an Artist with Autism (2002); How to Look at Outsider Art (2005); and The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography (2009). In addition to his book projects, Lyle Rexer has published many catalogue essays dealing with contemporary artists and collections and contributes articles on art, architecture, photography and culture to a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Art in America, Modern Painters, Aperture, Metropolis, Parkett, Tate, etc., and Raw Vision. As a curator, he has organized exhibitions in the United States and internationally, including “Fernando Canovas,” a retrospective of the Argentine painter held at the Insitiut Valencia d’Art Modern. For the Aperture Foundation he curated “The Edge of Vision,” an exhibition of contemporary abstract photography, which is traveling through 2013. Lyle Rexer teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and is a columnist for Photograph magazine.

Reviews

[Elaine D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Isn't this fascinating? It blew my mind. We used it for a text book in one of my classes and it was sooo interesting to analyze each piece. I did further research on Jonathan and I was completely hooked.

[Melissa Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of black and white pictures of facial features or people.
I like the explanation in the back of the book about Jonathan's art and history. I wish it was placed in the front of the book before his art.