If you want to raise a child to be a free and tolerant person take him to a museum

French art critic Francoise Barbe-Gall has long specialized on the subject “art and children.” She holds the position of the adviser to the French Ministry of Education and believes that art should play a great role in school education because it helps to raise a free and tolerant person. Barbe-Gall is convinced that one should form a habit of contemplating and analyzing art in a person since childhood.

It is the second visit of Barbe-Gall to Ukraine. She first visited Kyiv within the framework of “Book Arsenal.” This time Barbe-Gall came at the invitation of educational organization “Cultural Project” and French Institute in Kyiv and held a five-day workshop for parents, teachers, and museum professionals at the Khanenko National Museum of Arts. Barbe-Gall introduced modern pedagogical developments of aesthetic education of children tested in many countries of the world.

“Art allows children to form a free and comprehensive view of the world,” said the art critic. “It is a way to open life, receive new experience, and to form one’s own world view model. It is in art that child can find something he is not able to express or even understand. Paintings help them to feel and understand it. It is an extra chance to discover something completely new.”

In one of your interviews you said that art should play a fundamental role in school education. Why is it necessary and what role does it play today in French education?

“Nowadays, art is no longer playing such a fundamental role in French education. Although, it is a method to pass an independent and conscious opinion because artists are free in forming their views. Art, especially painting, formed a habit of contemplating in people that is why finding out more about art allows one to better see and navigate the visual sphere of our lives.”

Teachers of art are adults, thus, there is always a risk of spontaneous transfer of already formed world view model and one’s own criteria of beauty onto a child. How can one avoid it and give children a possibility to build their own world view model instead of “inheriting” it from their teachers?

“Absolute objectivity does not exist. Therefore, we should not just present a child with dry facts, moreover, not to impose your way of seeing things, but we should understand what he sees, what feelings this or that painting causes in him, what he liked or disliked about it. And eventually the child will understand that there are other ways of seeing things apart from those already familiar to him.

“We should forget that we have to transfer knowledge, that we have to take a child by a hand and lead him where we want. No, we should go where a child wants. It is hard and requires lots of efforts and patience.”

You have mentioned the habit of contemplating formed in your society. Ukraine, just like all the other post-Soviet countries, has been for a long time isolated from world’s art process, and a number of well-known names in contemporary art were not noticed in our country. How in your opinion you can encourage people to be not just spectators but also a conversation partner of the art work?

“People come to a museum and a guide has to explain and tell them something there. On no account one should start with a statement that this is such a thing and it should be seen and interpreted that way and not another. First of all, you need to ask the visitors about what they see in it. Often people say that modern art is terrible and they do not like it. Then you should ask them about what exactly they do not like and what they see. The idea is not to impose some knowledge onto people but to pull their own vision, impression, feeling caused by the art work. When a painting seems scary or unpleasant for a viewer maybe you should say that the artist wanted to show something scary.

“It is important to help people to understand that there is some idea behind every piece of art and they should find a key to it on their own. It is the connection with transcendence, social protest, and much more. Yes, art can be ugly if it depicts ugly things. Depending on how old a person is and what stage of life he is going through he can perceive certain things differently.”

In this context it is interesting what your opinion on such a phenomenon as socialist realism is. Today there are a lot of discussions about whether it is art or not and whether it should be introduced to the young generation.

“Of course, it is art. It is one of the trends of using images. From the historical point of view it is very interesting: it is one of the examples of artistic craft. Socialist realism here is closer to advertising because the purpose of this kind of art is to convince people to think and believe in a certain direction.

“But we need to be aware that this is quite a difficult issue for those people who are used to these images since their youth. Older people were formed by socialist realism, it laid the foundation of their vision of art and they still look at everything through its prism. This can explain the fact, that people of older generation are always more shocked with contemporary art.”

How important is the role of national art in the educational process because it contains specific symbols and codes?

“In education you can not oppose national art and art in general. Special attention has to be paid to national art in the educational process, it should be introduced as a part of world’s art context linking it with art of other cultures. At one time I learned that Vasyl Kandynsky and Kazimir Malevich – founders of abstractionism, were Russians. Today I know that they were Ukrainians. This is the work we have to do – to show to the world our own history of art.”

Your book How to Talk to Children about Art has been translated into many languages. Perhaps, it will soon appear also in Ukrainian. While we don’t have it yet would you please tell us what is the right way to introduce a child to art?

“The first step is to present art to children in the most personal way, not by using dry facts but in a form of a dialogue. It works on the same principle as the situation ‘I love croissants. Want to try?’ This is exactly how we should act here: ‘I like this painting very much and I want you to also see it.’ Even if your child does not like this very painting he will find another one in the museum that will suit his taste.

“Secondly, you should give your child a chance to choose something on his own. You should wait until your child chooses a painting where he’d stop. It does not matter where he will begin: it can be antique or modern art, main thing is that it should be his choice. If a three or four year old child will get acquainted with Pablo Picasso’s paintings, in the future those images will be familiar and comprehensible for him.”

What paintings do children like the most? It is believed that children love abstraction because it resembles their own pictures.

“Sometimes parents are surprised at what pictures their kids are interested in. It is impossible to predict because it depends on child’s personal vision. This may be abstraction, ancient art, and impressionism. We can say that very often paintings by Giuseppe Archymboldo attract children’s attention because one can see so much in them. However, it is all very individual.”

In your book How to Talk to Children about Art you suggest to introduce art in context of everyday life. Why do you think today it is especially important to establish art as something massive and common?

“Art should be as open as possible so it wouldn’t turn into some sort of reservation for the chosen, for closed community. At the same time children should be interested in it so that a visit to museum would not be seen as a duty, as a ‘must do’ but only as a ‘want to do.’ You must give children a choice then there will be a result.”

Today we can observe that some themes in art still remain tabooed for parents, like themes of death or nudity. Parents often avoid paintings with nude body in museums because they do not know how to explain to children why a person is pictured without clothes.

“This is actually very simple. Why is a person naked? That’s because he is hot or because he is poor. You must answer in a very simple and clear manner and also your answers have to be true. After hearing such kind of answer the child will likely switch to other things. Parents are often more shy and worried, as well as constrained and closed than children.”

The Day’s FACT FILE

Francoise Barbe-Gall is a well-known art critic and the author of the books translated into many languages How to Talk to Children About Art, How to Look at a Painting and How to Understand a Painting: Decoding Symbols in Art. Currently teaches at the School of the Louvre and holds the position of a consultant to the French Ministry of Education. Established artistic and educational organization CORETA. Conducts lectures, seminars, and workshops for museum staff, teachers, and parents. Defends the position that art should be easily understood and not elitist.