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Artists with Down syndrome gains international claim
- Nov 19, 2008 at 11:07 AM
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Their work recalls paintings by expressionist masters, but these students have Down syndrome. Their accomplishments at the Mexican School of Down Art are shattering preconceptions about mentally disabled people — especially in the developing world where resources for the handicapped can be scarce, leaving many to struggle for dignity.
These students' paintings and lithographs "shatter the stereotype that individuals with Down syndrome have no interior mental life of richness and complexity," said Dr. David Braddock, who heads the University of Colorado's cognitive disabilities institute and who helped bring their artwork to the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art.
About one in 800 babies is born with Down syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes mental retardation, facial deformity and, often, serious heart defects.
And while not everyone with Down syndrome is artistic, art instructor Daniel Perez says his students' disability helps them see the world more creatively. He sees them transform verbal shortcomings into symbolic art, with a fresh perspective that shines through in their paintings.
"They have a capacity, a sensitivity, for art: They're very creative," Perez said. "Their limitations enable them to see the world in a way you and I don't."
Perez says his students' talent blew away his preconceptions about people with disabilities. He holds up an incredibly detailed engraving of a bull and bullfighter as an example: "Looking at a piece of art like this makes you realize that they're capable of anything."
The school is part of the John Langdon Down Foundation, a non-profit founded in 1972 that provides education, counseling and medical care to 500 low-income students with Down syndrome in Mexico City.
In 1995, the school added occasional art classes, and discovered the students "were doing wonderful things," said Sylvia Garcia-Escamilla, the foundation's president and founder. "My friends who are artists told me, 'Hey, Sylvia, this is something special."'
She quickly built the art classes into a full-time art school for about 25 adults, aged 18 to 54. The students not only get technical instruction, but take classes in art history, meet with other Mexican artists and tour art exhibits. These interactions — and the international acclaim for their work — have been confidence-builders, officials said.
"They're no longer competing on a playing field where they can't achieve the same goals as other people," Garcia-Escamilla said.
These artists all have their own styles, although many tend toward expressionism and bright colors. Lorena Velez, a student working on a black, gray and bright-blue painting of her balcony, said she favors strong tones and nature scenes.
"Music, romantic music, inspires me to paint," Velez said. "My themes are landscapes, animals and the countryside."
Such vivid colors and broad brush strokes captivated Swiss artist and pediatrician Christine Aebi who took 28 of the paintings to Switzerland for a 10-day show she organized at Bern's Paul Klee Museum in September 2006.
"I was positively shocked by the beauty of the paintings. It was something like when I saw Klee's paintings for the first time," says Aebi, who has treated Down children. "There's no intellectual filter between what they're expressing and what they're seeing."
The exhibit was so popular that it was extended to Berlin, Germany; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Warsaw. This year it is scheduled to visit Stockholm, Sweden; Vienna; Budapest, Hungary; and Rome.
With more than 90% of its students coming from poor families, the foundation depends on funding from grants, donations and money raised selling prints, postcards and calendars of the students' artwork.
None of the originals are for sale, however. Garcia-Escamilla says the school is saving them for a museum it hopes to build.
Fundación John Langdon Down A.C.
www.fjldown.org.mx/en/art.html
The Mexican School of Art Down was created as an adventure to promote education ... The Mexican School of Down Art is, currently, the Foundation's keystone program, ...
- By Jessica Bernstein-Wax, Associated Press
Comments:
Thank you so much for sharing this!
Thank-you Gloria for showing yet another gift these special people have!!!Its wonderful to see this!!!
VERY COOL ! I LOVE IT !
How awesome!!! Thank you for sharing this!!!!
Thank you for sharing this!
This article means alot to me because my son Ryan loves to draw. His school always pushes sports and Ryan is not into that, because he has a bad knee. He is into the arts, just like my daughter. She is a wonderful artist. This was a wonderful article that gave me hope for him.
I love his face in this picture. The relaxed muscles with the very close and intense focus. I see my brother here when he is writing on his 3x5's. It makes me laugh. He has this stack of 3x5 note cards and he writes one name or one word on each. He has them in a specific spot - ususally by wherever he is sitting. He has his can of Coke and a hole punch. Josh makes 2 stacks -words facing up. Everyso often he will put the top card of pile (1) onto the top of pile (2). And in each card he punches one hole. It's in almost the exact same spot. No one knows what it means but it is him. He doesn't like anyone touching his stuff. He knows exactly where everything is in his room and if you move an item on his dresser he will notice. The docs say he is autistic but he only showed these signs after high school. I wonder if it was because of the Chicken Pox shot he got. Who knows. I loved this post. Thank you!
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Wow, there is some exceptional talent there! I love the bright, bold colors. What a wonderful school and a wonderful opportunity for these very talented artists!
- jjamom
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