Child­hood in the Mir­ror of Art — The ex­hi­bi­ti­on “Child­ren, Child­ren! — Bet­ween Re­pre­sen­ta­ti­on and Rea­li­ty” at the Bu­ce­ri­us Kunst Fo­rum

Hard­ly any other to­pic reve­als the ch­an­ge in so­cial va­lues as cle­ar­ly as the de­pic­tion of child­ren in art. The ex­hi­bi­ti­on “Child­ren, Child­ren! — Bet­ween Re­pre­sen­ta­ti­on and Rea­li­ty” at the Bu­ce­ri­us Kunst Fo­rum is de­di­ca­ted to this sub­ject and shows how the image of child­hood has de­ve­lo­ped over the cen­tu­ries. From clas­sic de­pic­tions of the Ma­don­na to por­traits of aris­to­cra­tic child­ren in ela­bo­ra­te cos­tu­mes and ar­mour to pho­to­graphs of hap­py child­ren in ever­y­day si­tua­tions, the show pro­vi­des an im­pres­si­ve cross-sec­tion from the 16th to the 21st cen­tu­ry.

The func­tion of de­pic­tions of child­ren has al­ways mir­rored so­cial ide­as: Por­traits of aris­to­cra­tic child­ren we­re on­ce in­ten­ded to se­cu­re power and a fu­ture, while de­pic­tions of po­or child­ren we­re meant to evo­ke com­pas­si­on and mo­ral en­cou­ra­ge­ment. By the 18th cen­tu­ry at the la­test, the idea of a se­pa­ra­te child­hood — wi­th space for de­ve­lo­p­ment, play and clo­sen­ess to na­tu­re — had be­co­me es­tab­lished. Even to­day, child­hood is one of the most fre­quent­ly trea­ted the­mes in the vi­su­al arts, cha­rac­te­ri­sed by cu­rio­si­ty, ex­pe­ri­men­ta­ti­on and the pur­su­it of com­mu­ni­ty. The ex­hi­bi­ti­on in­vi­tes vi­si­tors to dis­co­ver the di­ver­si­ty of images of child­hood and how they have ch­an­ged over time.