**1. Introduction**

The recognition of the specificities of the infantile condition by the fields of pedagogy and psychology, due to the advance of modernity throughout the nineteenth century, had as a consequence the renewal of the concepts of art and education in the period.

The need for change in educational systems, and the questioning of the adult view of the child, were all a concern of authors like the swedish educator Ellen Key, who published the work *The Children's Century*, in 1900. With a radically liberal orientation, Key stated that the school destroyed the pre-existing matter in the child, putting at risk the formation of his individuality [1]. On the other hand, from the first decades of the twentieth century, artistic avant-garde began to value, alongside primitive art, children's art as an example of artistic expression not yet contaminated by social conventions and academic prejudices [2].

The teaching of drawing as a preparation for labor in the industry, defended by currents linked to positivism and liberalism, had been questioned since the second half of the 19th century. Educators like the Englishman Ebenezer Cook, assisted by the psychologist James Sully, defended the importance of the imagination in the practice of drawing, in opposition to the hegemonic conception that saw in the discipline only as means of manual instruction and training of the eye and hand. In the work *Studies in Childhood*, Sully elaborated a theoretical explanation for the relationship between the infantile mind and its artistic production. Likewise, Thomas Ablett, founder of the Drawing Society (1888), defended drawing for its intrinsic values, and the act of drawing without proper pragmatic ends. For Ablett, the child should not be seen as part of an industrial gear, but as an individual capable of contributing more globally and effectively to society. He found desirable the development of the imagination, as well as the freedom in the choice of the themes and the expressiveness in children's drawings [3].

It is consensual among authors and researchers in children's art that the first experience of observing children who drew freely without any technical guidance was documented by Cizek in the 1880s. His conclusions would have generated the concept of self-expression and the teacher's interpretation as a spectator of the child's work, a guardian of his creative freedom. In his art school for children, created in 1897, the educator would have been the first to attribute pedagogical value to spontaneous child rearing. Cizek concluded that the child, under certain conditions, would be able to express himself in a personal and creative way, and that the artistic teaching methods previously adopted in the traditional school prevented the exercise of spontaneity and naive sensitivity. He also stated that the teacher should be a sensitive advisor, capable of guiding individual expression and innate creativity in the child. The rejection of the educational methods hitherto employed demonstrates the repudiation of the teacher as the center of the educational process, and demands a privileged and central place for the child within the school [4].

After the First World War, during the 1920s, the valorization of esthetic education was consolidated among European educators who saw art as an instrument of humanization and formation of a society free from violence and barbarism [5]. The proposition of art as an instrument for the construction of a new civilization had its best definition in the actions of Soviet constructivist artists and the Bauhaus school. According to Gooding [6], constructivism was based on the idea that after the catastrophe of recent wars and revolutions, art could play a relevant role in the construction of a new culture and civilization. Intending to functionally integrate art and society, artists such as Kandinsky, Tatlin, Malevitch, Rodtchenko, Gabo, and Pevsner, intended to functionally integrate art and society, aiming at the education of the masses and the aestheticization of the social environment. Assuming an almost messianic character, "they brought the new plastic order appropriate to the new social harmony. They spoke for the new world, for the new man" ([7] p. 16).

Bauhaus, an outpost for the penetration of these ideologies into society, was the most effective constructivist practical experience of education for the new world, working in the areas of architecture, landscaping, urbanism, advertising, furniture, and utensil design. In the Bauhaus manifesto, Gropius (1883–1969) hoped to prepare the ground for a "new structure for the future", planning and building for a "new man". He thus intended to end the distinction between artist and craftsman, and believed that his students would follow up on his ideal of society [8].

Bauhaus teachers spoke out against traditional teaching practiced in schools, believing that the transformation of society would be conditioned to the renewal

#### *Children's Art Exhibitions in Brazil: A Modern Badge for the New Man DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99161*

of the methods used until then. Among them, Hungarian László Moholy-Nagy criticized, in 1939, educational methods aimed at specializing in certain areas, noting that "a human being is developed only by the crystallization of the sum total of his experiences" ([9] p. 344). The artist was based on the view of the child as a being that brought with him a spontaneous and creative energy. He believed that education should contribute to the formation of the "integral man", emotionally and intellectually balanced, and capable of placing his individuality at the service of the community. The educators' task would be to coordinate the development of "human powers" and, for that, to found the grounds of a balanced life already in the elementary school.

The stimulus to creativity was in the ideological foundations of the Bauhaus, which intended to reconstruct the unity of the artistic and cultural sphere destroyed by industrialization, using art as an instrument of cultural and social regeneration [10]. According to its members, the school should forget the transmission of information and start generating knowledge itself, making it clear that creation was the fundamental expression for artists engaged in the educational process. This argument would be fundamental for those who worked with the teaching of art in the following decades.

Renewable educational experiences, put into practice in countries like England, Russia and Germany, were hampered by the progression of totalitarian regimes and the advent of World War II, and in many cases were interrupted. Nevertheless, Bauhaus' ideals of creating a better world would motivate Friedl Dicker-Brandeis (1898–1944), a former student of the Institution, to put them into practice in an extremely adverse situation. In the ghetto and concentration camp created by the Nazis in Terezin, the Czech city, children worked under their guidance [11], producing "pictorial narratives" that covered "past and future, hope and memory" in drawings showing "the barracks of the countryside, but there are also the seabed, the village bakery, the butterflies in the countryside, the bourgeois living room, the biblical landscape, clouds and stars over the reddish sky" [12]. Before being sent to Auschwitz with her students, where everyone would be executed, the artist hid thousands of drawings in two suitcases which, found later, had their contents revealed through the book *I Never Saw Another Butterfly*, by Hana Volavkova, published in 1964.

After World War II, the need to question educational processes is resumed, considering that a school isolated and independent of political systems would now not be enough to maintain peace. With the end of the war, the United Nations were created in October 1945 to replace the Society of Nations, and in November 1945, education ministers from the allied countries met in London with the aim of creating the United Nations for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO). When officialized a year later, it had 20 member states and brought into its constitution the confidence that the promotion of democratic principles of dignity, equality, and mutual respect between men would prevent another war of world proportions [13].

The UNESCO proposal added faith in education as a promoter of peace and the encouragement of regional artistic production as part of the ideal of respect for the differences of men in their cultures, revealing their creativity and spiritual experience. The understanding and acceptance of differences were considered of fundamental importance to avoid a new war, and the artistic manifestation, in its various forms, appeared in the discourse of the creators of UNESCO as an instrument to promote spiritual satisfaction and disseminate the culture of peoples.

Education, for the newly created UNESCO, was conceived as an antidote to racism and nationalism, present at the origin of the second world conflict, and had a broad sense of promoting understanding through the mutual acceptance of cultural differences. The Organization's plan for world peace included not only activities in the area of education, but of science and culture. Art, even though at first with a poorly defined role, was cited not only in its erudite form, being understood from the perspective of cultural identification that also included popular art, which opened the way for the valorization of children's drawing and other forms of popular demonstrations. Children's graphics, produced without any restrictions, started to be interpreted at that moment as a revealing manifestation of the child's individuality and an authentic testimony of his regional culture. Through these images, it was believed that it was possible to stimulate the exchange between different cultures without the intermediation of written language.

Edwin Ziegfeld, a professor at Columbia University, USA, linked to UNESCO, argued that contact with art would be able to instrumentalize children to deal with the problems of the 20th century, contributing to them becoming emotionally mature adults. Creative activities would have as basic characteristics individuality and integration, essential qualities to live in a world with permanent tension caused by conflicts and the Cold War, and where mechanization and technological advancement prevent the full development of the self. Through that, the individual would be able to see his relations with the world more clearly: "Art knows no national or racial boundaries. Children who are educated in close contact with the artistic forms of other countries are less inclined to create barriers against cultural exchange when they grow up. The United Nations are doing their best to encourage this spirit of mutual art education. International competitions and exhibition exchanges are two of the most popular methods employed" [14].

The decade following the end of World War II demonstrated that even after the repetition of great conflict, the ideal of the decisive role of art as a civilizing and social transforming instrument would still remain alive among artists, intellectuals, and educators. The child, a symbol of a state of purity, would be the raw material for the construction of a world without wars, a new beginning after the failure of the adult world. For that, it should be heard and protected so that it could develop in a balanced way. Expressions previously used, such as "children's drawing", "children's graphic language", or "children's graphics", fell out of use, and, from the 1940s, children's creations with drawing, painting, and modeling started to receive the common designation of child art.

Resulting from the ideas of intellectuals, educators, and artists, the exhibitions were seen as essential strategies for the consolidation of children's art, as a manifestation endowed with esthetic attributes and for the institution of its educational value. For them, the spectators' confrontation with the children's drawings and paintings was the best way to disseminate the ideas that credited art with a transforming power of individuals, capable of contributing to the formation of a better human being. The strong impression these images made on specialists and on the general public was more effective than the verbal defense or the presentation of projects, theoretical texts, or reports of experiences.

#### **2. The first children's art exhibitions**

Art teaching experiences are often characterized by an exhibition at the end of work, a moment of pleasure and fulfillment for the participants and advertising to the teacher, to their school, and to the methodology adopted. In general, the practice of

#### *Children's Art Exhibitions in Brazil: A Modern Badge for the New Man DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99161*

exposing child artworks as evidence of educational methods has as one of its origins the great universal exhibitions held since the middle of the 19th century. Initially designed to show the progress of modernization and the products of the industry, they were organized based on didactic, normative and civilizing intentions, and achieved great repercussions in their time. First carried out by countries such as England, France, and the United States, they were soon imitated by others like Brazil, giving prestige to education as a sign of modernity, and spreading proposals in this area, which included didactic materials, pedagogical methods, and different levels of teaching [15].

The first major international exhibition took place in the city of London in 1851, followed by others in several European and American cities. Spectacular shows on the triumph of capitalism, such exhibitions were organized by representations of the participating countries, resulting in a comparative process between the most and the least developed. Subjected to a detailed categorization, the exposed objects were evaluated by a judging committee and competed for awards.

Brazil, in addition to being represented at international exhibitions, also endeavored to organize national events, demonstrating the desire to present the country as civilized. This effort resulted in a series of publications, such as catalogs, regulations, magazines, books about the country, albums, commemorative editions, and reports, also yielding articles in newspapers and magazines of the time. In the sections dealing with education, students' work was displayed alongside administrative documents, school buildings and furniture, teaching materials and lesson plans for teachers.

Deriving from the experience of universal exhibitions, specific events focused on educational issues started to be organized. The First Pedagogical Exhibition, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1883, is a good example of this type of initiative, revealing the interest of intellectuals and educators in the renewal of teaching. In addition to national institutions, European and American exhibitors were invited to submit proposals for each level of education. The invitation to the exhibition listed the objects that could be shown, which also included the students' production, together with the explanation of the adopted methods [16].

The model of holding exhibitions as evidence of the modern teaching methods migrated to the interior of schools, spreading especially between the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. Rosa Fátima de Souza [16], when analyzing the implementation of graduated school in the state of São Paulo, emphasized the importance of school exhibitions, alongside the exams and closing parties of the school year. These events, a source of pride for teachers, students and families, had the function of making public the activities developed in educational institutions, representing an opportunity for not only the family, but also for the general population, to become aware of the quality of work done there by teachers and students, as well as their care, skill, effort, commitment, and dedication. For the author, school exhibitions explain the multiple ways in which the primary school built its institutional identity and extended its pedagogy to the wider society. Nevertheless, the adoption of parameters of excellence based on the idea of care generated distortions, as all schools wanted to show the best, even if they were not able to do so. In many cases, they simply opted not to do such shows, for fear of the principal and teachers of presenting poorly done works. In others, the exhibitions were nothing more than staging, presenting works by teachers or parents as being done by students.

The rigidity of the parameters for the judgment of child production and the suspicion that they were not always the authors of the works were grounds for criticism by educators identified with the renewing movements for education in the first decades

of the 20th century. For them, the exhibition of child artistic works should serve to show not the excellence of execution, but the spontaneity of children's expression and their development process. Using the same strategy as their predecessors, these educators sought, with the exhibitions, to publicize very different ideas. In the case of children's art, more than exposing the technical skill or precociousness of the participants, the exhibitions became the very discourse of sustaining a concept: the child had a natural propensity to manifest themself through the arts and this practice should be encouraged, as it would bring benefits to their psychological and social development.

It is said that, after Franz Cizek's experiments at the end of the 19th century, the German educator Georg Kerschensteiner would have organized an exhibition of children's drawings in 1902, being the first international exhibition of children's art held in France in 1922 [17].

On one hand, school exhibitions are rooted in the idea of bringing progress and civilization to the public, and on the other, exhibitions of children's drawings with a modern orientation can also be related to the expositional traditions of the art field, in view of the transit of information among educators, pedagogues, psychologists, and artists. It was the visit to such an exhibition that motivated the English educator Marion Richardson to continue investing in the direction of teaching of art with a renewing tendency, which would become exemplary. Organized by the art critic Roger Fry, the Exhibition of Children's Drawings, which took place in 1917 at Omega Workshops, featured drawings made by kids, children of artists. The event impressed the educator, triggering the consequent exchange of ideas and experiences between the two professionals. Fry did not agree with art teaching methods in the school context, as they did not respect child spontaneity in the different stages of child development. From then on, Richardson started to use the exhibitions as a strategy for the dissemination of her teaching methods [18].

Cizek also used the resources of exhibitions to disseminate his methods, such as those held in Cologne (1914) and Munich (1920), in Montreux (1923), in the Netherlands (1920 and 1924), and in Vienna (1929). There is also the registration of an exhibition, which would have traveled through Great Britain (1921 and 1924), as well as a participation in the Exhibition of Applied Arts in Paris (1925). Similar exhibitions also circulated in North America (1924–1929) and South Africa (1934) [4].

In England, Barclay-Russel, an educator who had served as a missionary in Africa, started in 1936 a project that focused on artistic production for children and teenagers, giving rise to a collection of thousands of examples of drawings and paintings made by them. He was the founder of the New Society of Teachers in Art, which was transformed in 1940 into the Society for Education in Art. In association with Richardson, he organized in 1938 a large children's art show at County Hall, in London. His intention to found a Research Center designed to prove "the indispensable value in a healthy society of genuine creativity encouraged in childhood" ended up not being realized due to the war situation in which Europe found itself ([3] p. 45).

However, an exhibition held in the 1940s was perhaps the most fruitful among European, North American, and Brazilian educators and artists. An invitation by the British Council to Herbert Read during World War II sparked his interest in children's art. The proposal was to bring together British works of art that would go on a traveling show through neutral countries, but as transporting them across the Atlantic would be a risk in time of war, they opted for a show of art by children from several British schools [19]. This project created the bridge between Read and the work of Barclay-Russel, who saw the thinker as his ideal advocate. These works had been

#### *Children's Art Exhibitions in Brazil: A Modern Badge for the New Man DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99161*

carried out after the English educational reforms, which intended to renew concepts based on applied psychology. The presentation text, written by Herbert Read, pointed out some factors as of relevance for the recognition of children's art as an esthetic experience: the appreciation of primitive art and the revolutionary development of modern art, as well as the performance, in England, of educators dedicated to the defense of the insertion of art in the school curriculum. He was also keen to point out that, although produced during the most intense period of Nazi bombing, very few drawings had war as their theme.

Starting in England, the British Council Exhibition of British Childrens's Drawings circulated in countries such as the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Australia. A few years later, this same exhibition would travel the world, arousing the interest not only of educators, but also of the European artistic milieu. The director of Château d'Antibes, an institution on the south coast of France, recalls that he received the exhibition organized by the British Council in 1945, which was visited by Pablo Picasso [20].

The contact with the artistic works of those children made Read dedicate himself, in the following years, to the study of children's creativity, producing works that became essential for educators in various parts of the world, such as *Education through art* (1943), *The education of free men* (1944) and *Culture and education in a world order* (1948), among various others. Read believed that greater understanding and peaceful coexistence between peoples would have its roots in the integral development of personality through education, and so the art of the child would be the guideline of this philosophy: the heroic task of education would be to prevent the child from losing contact with his roots and cultural values by manifesting himself symbolically [20].

The developments of this exhibition on Brazilian lands will be discussed next.
