Sympathy with Pablo

Picasso
Originally uploaded by woongjochang.

During the last Thanksgiving holidays(2006), our family went to Washington DC and spent a lot of time in museums. Luke was so excited (sometimes scared) to see various artworks.

At the first encounter with this Pablo Picasso's artwork in National Gallery of Art, he shouted, "Mama" and "Chi Chi." As you know, mama is a baby word for mother and "Chi chi" is a Korean baby word meaning nipples of woman. I don't know if he felt a kind of mother´s warm breast by seeing the sculpture but it is certain that he recognized the simplified (so difficult to recognize) figure as a woman. I think he might have felt some sympathy with Pablo Picasso which I could not feel. Interestingly, after his remark, I could also see a mother and the mother´s warm breast in the statue.

Perhaps criticising art at the level of kid's eyes may give us more fruitful enjoyment of art.