The exhibition "DRAW CHILDREN OF THE WHOLE EARTH WAR. BUT DO CHILDREN DREAM ABOUT THE WAR ..."

By the International Children’s Day and the year of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art will open an exhibition entitled “Children draw the whole earth war. But do children dream of war… ”

The exhibition will feature more than 100 graphic works by children from the USSR, Spain, China, Germany, the USA, Great Britain, France, and Japan in the 1930s and 1940s. from the collection of the Institute of Art Education and Cultural Studies of the Russian Academy of Education (ICHO & RAO).

Author: Probezhimov, 17 years old. Kuibyshevsky city, Russia. "Fight on Lake Hassan"

The history of the collection, whose chronological framework covers the period from 1896 to 2015, reflects the history of art education as a scientific field of art history, psychology and pedagogy, contacts between the Soviet Union and Russia with experts from different countries.

Many of the drawings presented at the exhibition were first exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow in 1934. The creativity of the children of Great Britain, Germany, the USA, France and Japan clearly reflects the artistic style of the time, the national features of culture, and most importantly - the child’s clear view of the world, capable of making discoveries, paying attention to the unique signs of the time, surprising with its observation.

Posted by: Lange, 9 years old. Berlin, Germany. "Swan geese"

The wide geographical coverage of the material presented allows us to show the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe that has occurred through the eyes of children.

INFORMATION

The history of the collection dates back to the 1920s, when the outstanding art critic A.V. Bakushinsky (1883-1939), while working at the State Academy of Art Sciences (GAHN), laid the foundation for the collection and study of children’s art in order to identify the main periods of the child’s development and understanding of the “art form in her own evolution”. The period of work of the State Academy of Agricultural Sciences became the only one in the history of Russian science, when the study of children’s creativity was equated with the study of the history of art.

After the liquidation of the State Academic Art Institute in 1931, a collection of 6,000 drawings was received at the Central House of Art Education of Children (IHOiK RAO - successor of the Central House of Artists), in which the fine arts sector was created, headed by the artist and teacher G.V. Labunskaya, student of A.V. Bakushinsky. One of the main tasks of the sector was replenishment of the collection as a result of exhibitions of children’s drawings, cooperation with schools, foreign organizations, psychologists and artists in order to create the necessary base for research work.

Francisco Rodriguez, 13 years old. Valencia, Spain. Fight on the high seas. 1937

In 1934, a large-scale international exhibition of children’s drawings, prepared by the Central House of Artists, was held at the State Museum of Fine Arts (now the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts). It was attended by 15 European and Asian countries. Autographs of prominent representatives of Russian and foreign culture, in particular, an enthusiastic assessment by OM Mandelstam: “This exhibition is as diverse as the whole world. Children are everywhere endlessly alive. Great are the little Turks, Americans, Poles, Armenians, Samoyeds. ”

As a result of the exhibition, the collection amounted to 200,000 units, its geographical dimensions were determined. The collection includes drawings from leading comprehensive and art schools in the USA, Great Britain (including the Kingston Grammar School, Parliament Hill and King Alfred schools in London, which still exist today) and other European and Asian countries.

Soviet children came into contact with the horrors of war during the Civil War in Spain (1936-1939). Many drawings are devoted to the history of the Soviet ship "Komsomol", whose death was experienced by children as a personal tragedy. The fate of the ship "Komsomol" excited the children so deeply because he arrived in Spain with a noble mission - in the second half of November 1936 military equipment and gifts from women and children of the Soviet Union of Republican Spain were delivered to the Spanish ports of Alicante and Valencia.

Li-Sin-yong. China. Air battle. 1934.

The drawings were first shown in 1946 in Moscow at the All-Union Exhibition of Children’s Drawings. This was the first show of children’s art after the war. It is noteworthy that the theme of the war was reflected only in 41 figures. 49 works were devoted to the heroic past of the country, 39 drawings and sculptures illustrated fairy tales and epics, 15 drawings - works by A.S. Pushkin and M.Yu. Lermontov. Most of the works depicted nature, the animal world. During the war, children and still lifes painted, mostly flowers.

In the future, the collection was replenished and replenished, thanks to the holding of contests and festivals of children’s creativity, work with secondary schools and art schools, gifts from private individuals, magazines, and studios.

Partially the collection was exhibited in the halls of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin, other museums in Russia, Germany, Estonia.

At the exhibition at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art, a number of drawings are shown for the first time, so part of the rich collection of drawings by Chinese children of the 1930s is presented for the first time on a large scale.

The creativity of children from Europe, Asia, and America clearly reflects the artistic style of the time, the national features of culture and education, and most importantly - the child’s sincere outlook on the world.

The feeling that drove the organizers of the exhibition can be expressed in the words of Alexander Twardowski, “there is no more terrible rapprochement of opposing things in the world” than children and war.