Gale Griffiths June 21, 2013 Independent Project Victor Lowenfeld The Artistic Development of Children and the

Creative Potential of the Individual The focus of this paper is Victor Lowenfelds analysis of the artistic development of children, the creative potential of the individual through art, and his legacy in art education. He was born in Linz, Austria, and lived from 1903-1960. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, the School of Applied Arts, and the University of Vienna where he focused on European child study, psychology, and art. After teaching in Vienna for a number of years, it became necessary in 1938 for him to escape from Austria. He first moved to England, and from there, he immigrated to the United States, where he accepted a teaching position at Hampton Institute in Virginia. While there, he taught studio art and wrote the first edition of Creative and Mental Growth, which became a seminal guide for art educators throughout the 1950s. He moved to the Pennsylvania State University in 1946 and developed one of the first American Doctoral programs in art education (Stankiewicz, 2009). Victor Lowenfeld was linked to the work of American Progressive art educators and child study experts, believing that the role of the teacher was as an observer and diagnostician. He was interested in developing the whole child through art education, meaning the intellectual, emotional, physical, perceptual, aesthetic, social, and creative parts of their being. An important difference between him and other progressive art teachers is that though he focused on the development of individual creative potential, he wanted to use art-making methods that could encompass large groups of children, not just small private school groups, and museum classes (Stankiewicz, 2009). Lowenfeld believed that creative and mental growth took place in stages. He set forth a comprehensive theory of development from early childhood through late adolescence delineating stages of artistic development in a predictable order and at specific ages, beginning from the scribbling stage of the infant to the crisis of adolescence. Inherent to the graphic representations are the intellectual, emotional, social, perceptual, aesthetic, and creative aspects of growth (Burton, 2009).

New insights into the development of creative intelligence characterize it as a constructive activity rather than a spontaneous unfolding, as Lowenfeld believed. Nor does it take place in a fixed, age assigned sequence of stages, clearly bound by the same growth components all children experience the same way. The creative practices of children is much more flexible than Lowenfeld envisioned. Children live in a heterogeneous, complex, technological, challenging, and culturally diverse 21 st century world. Nevertheless, we can hold onto Lowenfelds essential belief in the contribution of the visual arts and to our understandings of the world through our capacity to construct complex knowledge and make the world a meaningful place (Burton, 2009). Creativity operates as a separate function from the rest of ones cognitive processes. It embraces ones experiences with greater playfulness and freedom, and is unique to each individuals purpose. The issues of creativity that concerned Lowenfeld was how it worked to help people make sense of their world and their relationship to it. It is this subjective relation between the world and ourselves that has to be studied in order to know how to stimulate a child properly according to his age level (Lowenfeld, 1960, p. 81 [emphasis in original]) Creative intelligence existed within everyone and acted to enlighten what he termed the search for subjective truth providing encounters with the world that were relational, distinctive, and unique (Lowenfeld (1957), as cited by Burton, 2009, p. 323); This timely process could be seen most readily in untutored artwork by children, nave, and primitive artists. He was consistent in his insistence on relational-knowing as being at the core of artistic practice and aesthetic experience. Without that relationship, there would be no art product, for the art product comes about through the experiencing of the world and all the objects within it. The work of art is not a representation of a thing, but of an experience of the thing. As one changes, so does the relationship to the world change, and this change is reflected in the manifestations of what one does. Lowenfeld focused on the whole being of a person. He believed that creative intelligence, with its heightened sensibilities, and relational-knowing, drawn from the experiences of life, would help children and adolescents locate themselves empathetically within the network of relationships that compose their worlds. His belief that education has so far failed in its ability to provide the empathy necessary for a more

harmonious and flexible humanity is due to its emphasis on knowledge and its neglect of the attributes that would help to develop these sensibilities. Art education could very well provide the answer to this need if introduced early enough. It could mean the difference between a flexible creative human being, and one who, in spite of all learning, will not be able to apply it and will remain an individual who lacks inner resources and has difficulty in his relationship to his environment (Burton, 2009, p. 325). Lowenfelds stage theory describes stages of artistic development in a predictable order and at specific ages from the scribbling stage of the infant to the crisis of adolescence. Inherent to the graphic representations are the intellectual, emotional, social, perceptual, aesthetic, and creative aspects of that growth (Burton, 2009). While this theory freed teachers from the concepts of imitation and telling, which were dominate practices in schools at mid-century, the critics felt it was less about artistic development than self-identity, personality, and human relations. This, to Lowenfelds way of thinking, was the great contribution of art to mankind, wherein art embraces the emotions and many other aspects of growth that have been neglected by education. He prioritized individual development and the properly supported creative practice that he believed would lead to personal autonomy, which would allow for a distancing of perception wherein young people could stand back and critique their worlds, avoiding the corrosive conventions of the commercial culture (Burton, 2009, p. 332). It is well to remember that one of the major concerns of art education is its effect on both the individual and society in general. To live cooperatively as well adjusted human beings in this society and to contribute to it creatively have become most important objectives for education. It is impossible to live cooperatively and understand the needs of our neighbors without selfidentification. As the child identifies himself with his own work, as he learns to appreciate and understand his environment by subordinating the self to it, he grows up in a spirit, which necessarily will contribute to the understanding of the needs of his neighbors. As he creates in the spirit of incorporating the self into the problems of others, he learns to use his imagination in such a way that it will

not be difficult for him to visualize the needs of others as if they were his own. (Lowenfeld (1957) as cited by Burton, 2009, p. 333) Lowenfeld believed that aesthetic growth was organic, and had no set standards. If it were standardized it would become dogmatic and rigid. Aesthetic growth was but one aspect of the creative practice, and like intellectual growth, did not hold sway over creative practices. Barkan, 1962; Lanier, 1969; and Wilson, 1997, would later criticize him for these sentiments. After the initial expressionistic handling of art materials, Lowenfeld believed there were two possible directions for the outcome of creative practice, both were forms of artistic realism: expressive realism and visual realism. The former style contains multi-sensory responses, color, and a freer handling of materials, described as internally directed and subjective. The latter style is primarily concerned with visual details, precision, and linearity, described as more distant and objective. He defined them as haptic and visual respectively, and believed they reflected personality types. He clearly favored the more expressive-haptic style and admonished teachers who emphasized the visual over the expressive in childrens art making. Just as his stage theory has been superseded by newer understandings about the processes of development, so his theory about personality types has been superseded by more recent findings, offering a wide range of styles within which children move freely. Not all children grow up to be artists, but his vision of children and adolescents who engage in creative activities requiring reflection and imagination will have developed new understandings through their discovery of the of visual expression of line, shape, color and form. Rather than emphasizing the aesthetic products of artistry (Burton, 2009, p. 335) Lowenfeld wanted all children to make use of their inherent creative intelligence so that they may navigate the complexities of the world. Personal Reflection I feel much more connected to Lowenfelds views regarding the creative intelligence of individuals. He supports my feelings that everyone can communicate on this level and that it is an essential part of what makes us human. Even with his outdated theories I find validity in the direction he was going at the time he was engaged with them. It was a way of organizing his findings to be analyzed and judged by all.

Overall, I think he was a great model for teachers at that time, allowing for a more humane, holistic approach to art education, which now is second nature. References: Burton, J. M. (2009). Creative intelligence, creative Practice: Lowenfeld redux. Studies in Art Education 50(4), pp. 323-337.Retrieved from http://www.naeaworkspace.org/studies_single/Studies%2050% Stankiewicz, M.A. (2001). Freeing the child through art. In M.A. Stankiewicz, Roots of art education practice (p. 38). Worcester, MA: Davis Publications.