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Art prodigy poses 'ethical nightmare' for parents

137 pointsby nekojimaalmost 12 years ago

14 comments

mddaalmost 12 years ago
I just wanted to point out that this is a UK family, talking to the UK press - so their attitudes (IMHO) may not be being interpreted correctly in &#x27;American&#x27;. (I&#x27;m from the UK, but have lived in NYC for over a decade).<p>I strongly doubt they&#x27;re <i>pressuring</i> their child to be normal : Eccentricity and &#x27;being interesting&#x27; are cherished qualities in the UK. I&#x27;m guessing that what they&#x27;re saying is that they&#x27;re making sure he has &#x27;space&#x27; so that when he wants to do ordinary stuff, and that there&#x27;s no-one whispering in his ear that he needn&#x27;t be interesting in playing football (soccer) because he&#x27;s a genius with a higher calling.<p>Also, maybe the art thing is just a childhood phase, and that&#x27;s Ok by them too.<p>From what I see from the people around me in my office, attitudes to children (and their education, aspirations, etc) are very different US vs UK.
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tokenadultalmost 12 years ago
Thanks to the first comment posted here, which pulled out the key quote from the parents, &quot;The most important thing is that he can relate to his peers and not be seen as any different.&quot;<p>I hope that is just a journalist quotation of an imprecise statement during live conversation in an interview. By contrast, as soon as I knew that my beloved and I would marry into an &quot;interracial&quot; marriage (she is from east Asia, and I am an American of a mixed assortment of European ancestry), I figured that my children would have no hope to &quot;not be seen as any different.&quot; (I later learned my children actually look like typical members of the local population in some central Asian countries that none of us have ever visited.) I also had Taiwanese friends tell me even before I met my wife that if I married a local girl and had &quot;mixed-blood&quot; children (that is a polite term over there, not an offensive term), that the children would surely be smarter and better-looking than most children.<p>I&#x27;ll leave to other people to judge both the intelligence and the personal appearance of my children. But what I very intentionally did in bringing up my children was plan to give them support so that whatever differences they have with other people in their childhood environments--whether height, weight, hair color, low IQ, high IQ, physical weakness, athletic prowess, or whatever it would be--they would still be cherished as our children. I haven&#x27;t wanted my children to be other than who they are. Yes, everyone should indeed &quot;relate to his peers&quot; and not be arrogant or aloof. Everyone should cherish everybody else&#x27;s differences. But that also means children ought to be able to follow the life path that fits them best after the shuffle of genes they receive from their parents, the influences of their early childhood, and the constraints of their youthful circumstances. A great artist shouldn&#x27;t have to set aside his painting to have buddies in the neighborhood. A young hacker shouldn&#x27;t be told to set aside the computer and play Little League baseball. To each their own. It happens that my children grew up in an environment in which most of their acquaintances are supportive of young people who pursue their own passions, and they haven&#x27;t had to be ground into sameness to have peers who like them.
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banealmost 12 years ago
&quot;As a child star, Coogan earned an estimated $3 to $4 million ($48 million to $65 million adjusted for 2012 dollars), but the money was spent by his mother and stepfather, Arthur Bernstein, on extravagances such as fur coats, diamonds, and expensive cars. Coogan&#x27;s mother and stepfather claimed Jackie was having fun and thought he was playing. She stated, &quot;No promises were ever made to give Jackie anything. Every dollar a kid earns before he is 21 belongs to his parents. Jackie will not get a cent of his earnings&quot;,[5] and claimed that &quot;Jackie was a bad boy.&quot;&quot;<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Coogan" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Jackie_Coogan</a>
jliechti1almost 12 years ago
<i>&quot;He&#x27;s a very lucky boy, but as parents we just have to say no to a lot of things to give him a normal life. The most important thing is that he can relate to his peers and not be seen as any different.&quot;</i><p>It&#x27;s interesting how many people with &quot;normal&quot; lives desire to live in the limelight, yet those who are already there just seek to be normal.<p>Is relating to your peers and not being seen as any different the <i>most</i> important thing?
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rdoublealmost 12 years ago
I&#x27;ve found this story a bit odd because if a child even just a few years older made paintings like these, they would maybe win a prize, but certainly not sell for $70,000 a piece.
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joshfraseralmost 12 years ago
I&#x27;m glad that my parents never pushed for me to be &quot;normal&quot;.
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ForrestNalmost 12 years ago
Just a bit of context from a person who works in contemporary art: the question of &quot;exploitation&quot; is complicated by the fact that a career like this is probably based in some part on exploiting people who don&#x27;t understand the state of art or the mainstream art market.<p>The notion, for example, that he is comparable to Monet is absurd, not only because this kid isn&#x27;t a good painter but also because it would be impossible to make Monet-like paintings today and be anything like Monet was during his time. The questions Monet was answering are no longer the questions anyone is asking art to answer.<p>If people are being told that this boy is a genius, or that he is likely to be an important artist in the future, they are being defrauded. Whether his parents are participating in the fraud or are being misled themselves probably has some bearing on how much we should trust them as parents I think (neither being a great endorsement but the former being much worse than the latter).
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fernlyalmost 12 years ago
Prodigies are extremely rare but do legitimately happen: kids who on first touching a piano or other instrument, play complete tunes etc. Kieron Williamson is in a list of visual arts prodigies[0]. Nevertheless the maturity and use of sophisticated technique, esp. in the painting of the grandfather, is startling. The list of musical prodigies is longer.[1] W.A.Mozart made his performing debut at 4 and wrote compositions at age 5. [2]<p>[0]<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_child_prodigies#Visual_arts" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_child_prodigies#Visual_...</a> [1]<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_prodigies" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_music_prodigies</a> [2]<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart</a>
ChuckMcMalmost 12 years ago
I find the stories of kids who sue their parents for misusing their funds quite sad. I never could figure out what the right way to deal with that was, put the money in t-bills and while &#x27;safe&#x27; you get sued for being a poor financial manager. Put it into a fund and have it lose value and find yourself in trouble again.<p>You can ask your child&#x27;s wishes but if they want to spend it all on candy do you?<p>The whole live a normal life thing is pretty straight forward if all the money gets whisked away into some trust account somewhere. When you start trying to use it to &quot;improve&quot; things where it often causes problems.
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sytelusalmost 12 years ago
Article doesn&#x27;t describe the most interesting part: Does these abilities appear spontaneously at early age? How child gets in to something so intensively? Was there any training and how much? But another article from Guardian does shade some light on this: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/29/boy-paints-like-old-master" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.guardian.co.uk&#x2F;lifeandstyle&#x2F;2009&#x2F;dec&#x2F;29&#x2F;boy-paint...</a><p><i>The truth is far more innocent. Two years ago, a serious accident had forced Keith to stop work and turn his hobby – collecting art – into an occupation. The accident also stopped Keith racing around outside with his son. Confined to a flat with no garden, surrounded by paintings and, like any small boy, probably influenced by his dad, Kieron decided to take up drawing. Now, father and son are learning about art together.<p>At first, Kieron&#x27;s art was pretty much like any other five-year-old&#x27;s. But he quickly progressed and was soon asking questions that his parents couldn&#x27;t answer. &quot;Kieron wanted to know the technicalities of art and how to put a painting together,&quot; says Michelle. Hearing of Kieron&#x27;s promise, one local artist, Carol Ann Pennington, offered him some tips. Since then, he has had lessons with other Norfolk-based painters, including Brian Ryder and his favourite, Tony Garner.<p>Garner, a professional artist, has taught more than 1,000 adults over the last few decades and Kieron, he says, is head and shoulders above everyone. &quot;He doesn&#x27;t say very much, he doesn&#x27;t ask very much, he just looks. He&#x27;s a very visual learner. If I did a picture with most students, they will copy it but Kieron is different. He will copy it and then he will Kieronise it,&quot; he says. &quot;It might be a bit naive at the moment but there&#x27;s a lovely freshness about what he does. The confidence that this little chap has got – he just doesn&#x27;t see any danger.&quot;</i>
banachtarskialmost 12 years ago
&quot;He&#x27;s a very lucky boy, but as parents we just have to say no to a lot of things to give him a normal life. The most important thing is that he can relate to his peers and not be seen as any different.&quot;<p>I can&#x27;t say I agree with this at all.
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Mordoralmost 12 years ago
There is another option - don&#x27;t sell the paintings.
RataDeDosPatasalmost 12 years ago
This kid is a genius. Which at the same time raises some flags. Makes me wonder if it really is him creating the paintings. What happened to the 10,000 hour rule and all that saying that there are no real instant successes? How did he get this good? How long did it take? Well, I&#x27;m off to answer my own questions in google.
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rorrr2almost 12 years ago
First world problems.
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