Victor D'Amico was the Director of the Department of Education at the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1937. D'Amico was an artist and art educator influenced by John Dewey's child-centered pedagogy. For him, creativity should prepare the child to live in a democratic society. At MOMA, D'Amico created the Children's Art Carnival, a program for young children from 1942 (the year of publication of this book) to 1969.
In this book, although its organization obeys chapters that compare the child with the artist, D'Amico explained that despite the similarities, the child and artist were different from the point of view of knowledge and technique. It was true, he said, that comparing Paul Klee and children's art made sense because Klee's vision was as spontaneous as a child's. However, Klee was the result of maturity and inventive genius. The child had a pure vision, and at the age of six, she was "an instinctive creator," being "prolific and spontaneous in his expression," requiring "little encouragement and almost no instruction." The child's art was "fresh" and "exciting." The abandonment of this state would arrive because the child's growth also corresponded to her development.
"the vision of the six-year-old is not static; it changes and grows with the child. Children who are teeming with ideas at six tend to become barren at twelve or fourteen."
The problem was deemed to be the school and the methods of instruction. The book aimed to counter-act this force of schooling practices, protecting the child's capacity to imagine throughout her life.
CM