(CZ) Dnešní situace dětské kresby
(EN) Present-day Situation of Children's Drawing

Nowadays the study of child drawing represents quite an extensive field covering the most diverse scientific viewpoints as well as artistic influences. From the psychological point of view the knowledge about child drawing has been enriched in the last few decades by some interesting observations of depth psychology. They are expounded in a suggestive manner by Herbert Read in his book called Education through Art. According to the author the child drawing is a spontaneous association of a symbol and all-round experience of the senses — but that of the intellect, too, it is a representation as well as the enjoyment of this representation. It stresses the role of collective non-consciousness and archetypes discovered by Jung. The value of creativity is then determined by the fact that it can be considered as one of the forms of the return to the inherent functions of the human ego — social reintegration. Besides psychology it is art that determines our new attitude to child drawing. The creative manifestation cannot be considered as art hut has the following in common with it: it arises as a confrontation of the subjective need to express oneself with the world of material and aesthetic relationships and laws. The contemporary state of artistic creation, emphasizing maximal rights of the subject and seeking communication between the work of art and the perceiving individual on the level of subconscious mutual understanding and sympathy, allows the child drawing and the possibilities of its cultivation to be seen in another way than as a document of the child’s cognition of reality and the child’s skills. What endangers the psychological authenticity of the creative manifestation and its educational value is, besides the unilateral visually-rationalist approach (which is typical of the school providing general education), also the so-called artism (which is typical especially of after-school education in hobby groups). Here the teacher’s artistic credo finds far greater scope for expression than the child’s vision and the child’s natural need for self-expression. The creative manifestation of the child and its growing popularity bear witness to our defence against those clichés which are liable to dominate our thinking and behaving — the world-wide interest in psychologically and pedagogically adequate use of creativity in visual arts illustrate our desire for internal independence and immediacy. But on the other hand the child’s creative work itself is endangered both by the rigidity of educationalists’ thinking and by accepting pre-fabricated artistic forms; these critical findings oblige us to weigh constantly and responsibly the decisive moments in visual arts education.