Xiao Situ at Commonweal:
Portraiture is one of the first genres of art that young children produce. As soon as age three, toddlers begin to grasp the concept that the scribbles they make on paper can symbolize real-world objects and experiences. The most recognizable form they begin to draw is the human figure, consisting at first of just a circle for the head and two vertical lines for legs. As preschoolers’ fine motor skills improve and their cognitive and emotional capacities mature, they add more expressive, descriptive attributes: arms, hair, facial features, clothing, and accessories. Through their choice of colors and their inclusion of variable details, young children are not only expressing themselves and experimenting with their sense of identity; they are actively processing their emotions and making sense of social interactions.
The portraits in The Face of Life, an ongoing exhibition that opened this spring at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, push viewers to grapple with the complexity of human experience. The show’s title comes from American artist Alice Neel’s insistence on the importance of depicting people “in the face of life that comes crashing about you.”
more here.
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