How Have Artists Been Inspired by Childhood?

Currently on at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Boston is an exhibition titled <a href="https://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/begin-again-artists-and-childhood" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood</a>. It’s an exhibition about the influence of children and the experience of childhood on artists; how children and childhood has inspired artists and how their work reflects and challenges perceptions of childhood. It features a range of artists from the early 20th century to today, and the list is quite impressive. It includes the Bauhaus abstract artist <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/klee/hd_klee.htm" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Klee</a>, the contemporary American artist <a href="http://www.glennligonstudio.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Glenn Ligon</a>, <a href="https://www.basquiat.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Jean-Michel Basquiat</a>, who was huge on the New York art scene in the early 80s, and loads more big names. There are lots of aspects of this exhibition that I think are really interesting. Firstly just the fact that it addresses an area of art history that has been undervalued or certainly not regarded with the importance that I think it should have. One of the things that the show looks at is the significance of the experience of childhood and teenage years on the development of artists. Whenever I have talked to artists about their journey to where they are now, if I dig enough into their personal stories — which of course I do because that’s what I’m interested in — there’s always something about how important art was to them growing up. So it’s there, embedded in pretty much every artist’s history. <a href="https://thegallerycompanion.medium.com/how-have-artists-been-inspired-by-childhood-b569193ad953">Visit Now</a>