Happy faces from all windows of a skyscraper merging with the blue sky as painted by a little girl visiting her grandparents in Manhattan in the 1970s.
The grandparents, living in an apartment complex of the garment district, introduced Nina to the culture of this big city.
The Jewish grandparents led a complicated life, balancing jobs with their struggle for social justice in this country, and to their granddaughter, they offered the unsullied joys of Manhattan.
Disasters happen, skyscrapers may topple. This painting celebrates the possibility of joy and innocence.
Some of those people look a bit too happy. I think the completion of the pattern is interesting. Every window with its happy face.
Interesting that the blue sky is mainly a boundary to define the building.
I wonder which would be most accurate: Nina saw happy people, assumed they were happy, or wanted them to be happy? My working hypothesis, which I just came up with, is that kids’ art is more about ordering their world in a way that makes sense to them mentally and emotionally than it is about observing and depicting it.
What an interesting idea.
Steve,
That is an interesting idea. Could that be a new definition of adult art as well, in particular given that depicting (if not observing) is so easy nowadays?
They look like crazy people who want out.
Arthur,
I take this as tongue in cheek as I seem to be recalling that you like Manhattan.
Another adult view of the picture was “whimsical”.
How old does one have to be to see something as whimsical?
Birgit,
Arthur’s comment is about the painting, not Manhattan.
You are taking Arthur’s comment literally.
His comment reminded me of all the people who could not imagine that anyone of sound mind would want to live in Manhattan.
It is interesting that, related as we are, I am rarely able to make myself clear to you. On the other hand, others may silently consider me to be off the wall.
Its okay, none of us can make ourselves clear to Karl.
I find the painting whimsical too.
kids’ art is more about ordering their world in a way that makes sense to them mentally and emotionally than it is about observing and depicting it.
I agree with Steve. As adults we do the same just become more sophicated in what we call it. I also think it is the heart of an artist. So I may be off the wall but I love the post and the comments.
interesting that in observing we do the same and see that which makes sense to us mentally and emotionally ……
How old does one have to be to see something as whimsical?
That is a good question, Birgit. I agree with Arthur that the picture could be seen as whimsical , that is, “lightly fanciful ” according to a dictionary. That is almost a characteristic of children’s art, isn’t it? Something in me tells me that kids know they are doing that and that they like it when they do it. I know that Nino and Fran (3 and 5 years old) love to behave in a whimsical manner sometimes (one example is the lightly fanciful play acting that they are a year or two younger than they really are). So why shouldn’t the whimsical aspect of children’s art be intentional, at least some of the time?
Of course, that is quite a different interpretation than saying that they are ordering the world in a way that makes sense to them mentally and emotionally. Isn’t it?
I suppose that I was fixated on the psychological aspect – a child open to the world.
Birgit,
Would you rather we consider you on the wall?
Anyway, you didn’t answer my question, which was not purely rhetorical. From your knowledge of Nina, do you have a sense of what she was doing? As Ginger says, I think there’s a mixture of observation, assumption/imagination, and hope in all art, but I wonder if the mix is different for kids. Whimsy seems a little outside this schema, which is therefore lacking. But at least some of the time kids are quite serious about their drawing.
I believe and think that often kids are very serious about what they are doing..drawing, questioning, etc. but they don’t yet take themselves so seriously as adults…and in that innocent moment comes whimsy…and the ability to be in the present. something I often wish I could do more of myself. Maintain the ability to see and play rather than self censor/socially censor etc. etc…
Birgit on the wall is wonderful and she has the ability to put herself there when she wants to
Steve,
It is Nina who is on the wall with her bold strokes and her openness to people. I don’t think that she intended her painting to be whimsical.
My view of the grandparents: They were busy people, idealists, fighting for a cause, respected by their friends. After their retirement, they wrote a book together. Their apartment was a quiet, charming place to visit. Grandma played the piano. Their taste in food was European and Asian. They were gracious and did not bother an older German in-law with their ideology.
They took time off from other affairs when Nina visited, and as experienced Manhattanites, put the resources of that big city at her feet.
Much later, in her declining years, a photograph of Nina was Grandma Pearl’s icon.
Feeling welcome, loved and cherished, a little girl could find her Manhattan environment truly joyous.
Maintain the ability to see and play rather than self censor/socially censor etc. etc…
Yes, Ginger, there is a lot of pain out there. It is good that some of us observe happiness.
I hope that you will show us more of your art.