JOLLY DAYS

Marla Paints Nightline

Nightline just did one of those stories. “Tyke Paints Like Picasso But She Isn't Potty Trained!” — practically ripped from the tabloids. In this case there was a wrinkle: did the child actually paint the abstract expressionist paintings? Or were her parents a little too involved?

A filmmaker was in the process of recording the story when accusations were first made. Contrary to expectations, the filmmaker was not the exploitative type; his doubts arose after basically living with the family over an extended period.

There were a number of unanswered questions — characteristic of media cluelessness when covering art related subjects:

• Did the father lay out the paint and canvases in a selective manner? In one clip the child was painting on a canvas covered with black paint— was that surface prepared for her without any decision on her part and was she then presented with a narrowed palette of colors by her parents?

• Many of the paintings looked as though they were done from formula — squeeze paint on canvas, let child spread and scribble with brush. Did the father show his child this approach?

• A crucial question: did the parents sit with the child and show her paintings by Pollock, Monet, Kokoschka, Matisse, Guston's early expressionist works — just before she began painting? Many of the paintings look imitative. Children have a mimetic genius — although not the same as talent, it isn't a bad starter if the child develops dedication. Did this little girl “get ideas” from tutored, selective exposure and encouragement to “do something like that”?

• These are abstract expressionist works? Although kids will do abstract works, by nature children are literalist by inclination and tend towards storytelling in their work. The little girl never appeared involved in an internal narrative, no matter how simply derived, that would suggest involvement in any nascent aesthetic sense.

I had the feeling the parents had truly convinced themselves that their daughter was borne from Zeus' ear — a spontaneous genius. Then again, Marion Jones probably had convinced herself she wasn't taking enhancement drugs, once, long ago.