Exchange: Children and Childhood

Children and Childhood

Indian
Mother and Child (small folk bronze)
bronze

Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Leo S. Figiel and Dr. and Mrs. Steven J. Figiel

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Bruce Davidson
Untitled (Child with a Doll Carriage), from "Welsh Miners"
gelatin silver print on paper
16 in x 19 15/16 in (40.64 cm x 50.64 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Douglas M. Kenyon

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Bruce Davidson
Untitled (Child in Graveyard), from "Welsh Miners"
gelatin silver print on paper
16 1/16 in x 19 15/16 in (40.8 cm x 50.64 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Douglas M. Kenyon

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Artist Unknown
Young Woman with Child at the Beach
gelatin silver print on paper
14 in. x 11 in. ( 35.5 cm x 28 cm )
Gift of Beverly Baker in memory of Morris D. Baker

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Andy Warhol
Mother and Child, undated
gelatin silver print on paper
10 in. x 8 1/16 in. ( 25.4 cm x 20.5 cm )
Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

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Nakayama Tadashi
Hana ni natta cho (Butterfly Which Became a Flower)
color woodblock print on paper
16 3/4 in. x 14 1/2 in. ( 42.55 cm x 36.83 cm )
Gift of Sheila and Ronnie Cresswell

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Teotihuacáno; Mexican
Mother and Child
terracotta
3 1/4 in x 2 3/4 in x 1 1/4 in (8.2 cm x 7 cm x 3.1 cm)
Gift of Dr. & Mrs. J. Robert Willson

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This print illustrates a scene in a jôruri play based on history. Ishidômaru is the childhood name of a figure better known to history as Kûkai, the early 9th-century founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism in Japan. In this scene, the child Ishidômaru has come to the remote mountain of Mt. Kôya in search of his father, a warrior who had taken the tonsure. When the two finally met, the father refused to recognize his son. The rejection of family ties was one of the basic tenets of monastic life in Buddhism.

Utagawa Hiroshige
Kokon Jôruri zukushi series: 'Ishidômaru' (Kûkai as a child)
color woodblock print on paper
14 1/8 in x 10 1/16 in (35.88 cm x 25.56 cm);20 1/8 in x 14 5/8 in (51.12 cm x 37.15 cm)
Gift of Pearl Sellards

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Gerald Parker
Child
gelatin silver print on paper
8 9/16 in x 12 7/8 in (21.7 cm x 32.7 cm);16 in x 20 in (40.6 cm x 50.8 cm)
Gift of the artist

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Baldwin Lee
Untitled, Monroe, LA
gelatin silver print on paper
16 in x 19 7/8 in (40.64 cm x 50.48 cm)
Museum Purchase

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Two children sit on the right side of the image and a third stands with hands under her apron. It is a very rough sketch with shading around the figures and very little discernable of faces.

Camille Pissarro
Children Talking (Enfants Causant)
graphite on white paper
3 5/8 in. x 6 in. ( 9.2 cm x 15.2 cm )
Museum Purchase

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Nakayama Tadashi
Sumire (Violet)
color woodblock print on paper
4 7/8 in. x 4 7/8 in. ( 12.38 cm x 12.38 cm )
Gift of Sheila and Ronnie Cresswell

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This portfolio offers a wide range of images and objects that depict children. In some of the works, children are accompanied by mothers and fathers, while in others they are shown playing with other children. Still others show children as personifications of innocence. Some of the works are snapshots, while others are professional photographs or imaginative renderings, all bringing up questions about presence and identity. From discussions of race and social standing to those of innocence and the absence of fault, the huge variety of works allows for diverse discussions about the depictions of children and childhood over space and time.

‘Look Closer’ Work:

Baldwin Lee
Untitled, Vicksburg, MS
gelatin silver print on paper
15 7/8 in x 20 1/16 in (40.32 cm x 50.96 cm)
Museum Purchase

Baldwin Lee, Untitled, Vicksburg, MS, 1983
UMMA 1992/1.137

Work Description

The contemporary photographer, Baldwin Lee, was born in Brooklyn in 1951 and currently is a Professor of Art at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This photograph is part of a series entitled “Black Americans in the South” and chronicles his first encounters with Southern Blacks after the New Yorker moved to Knoxville in 1982. This early photograph from the six-year series shows a man and his son outside their home. What is unique about his images is that, despite his first reaction to the living conditions of Southern Blacks, he does not depict them only as stressed by their economic status. Though their sometimes dilapidated environment is visible in the photographs, the subjects are portrayed as charismatic individuals rather than stereotyped victims.

Related Article

Tina M. Campt, “Family Matters: Diaspora, Difference, and the Visual Archive,” Social Text 98, vol. 27, no. 1, Spring 2009, p. 83-114. (Focus on p. 83-97)

Article Discussion Questions

With the knowledge of Baldwin Lee’s place as an outsider, both geographically and racially, when he took these images, what new questions are raised when you consider Campt’s point that the image gains new meaning once the surrounding circumstances are known?

Though Campt is specifically discussing images of the African diaspora in Europe, how might you go about considering Lee’s photograph with her main themes in mind?

In Campt’s account, what function can family portraits take on other than mere documentation?

Further Reading

Teresa Annas, “Badlwin Lee’s unblinking views of the South,” Hampton Roads, June 26, 2012 (http://hamptonroads.com/2012/06/baldwin-lees-unblinking-views-south)

John B. Kirby, “An Uncertain Context: American and Black Americans in the Twentieth Century,” The Journal of Southern History, vol 46, no. 4 (Nov., 1980), p. 571-586.