How to Help Your Baby Love Art

You may not know it, but your baby was born ready to become an art lover. That sounds strange I know, but it's true. Babies love to look at new and interesting things, but how do I know they appreciate art. I've experimented. It started when my son was about a year-and-a-half. I was the at-home dad and I noticed that late afternoon was always a particularly difficult time of day. It was still a couple of hours till my wife got home from work, and I was looking for something that would keep us occupied and happy through that slow part of the day. TV was out because I don't believe in tv for young children. So, I decided I'd try something I knew I'd like, and see what he thought of it. I went to our neighborhood public library and checked out some oversized art books.

I don't remember all the different artists we tried, but I particularly recall the first afternoon when we sat on the couch together looking at a huge format book of Modiglianis. I was enjoying myself, and Jack was very attentive and interested. I didn't quite realize what he was holding his attention until he pointed to a figure on the page and said "she's soft." Wow. He was responding to the mood of the painting without being told. In fact I never told him anything about the art. All we did was sit and look at pictures together. He also mentioned that she had a long neck. Of course, she had a long neck it was Modigliani.

On another occasion I remember him pointing to a portrait of a face in a book of Fauve paintings and saying "blue." Which it was. Right then I got a hint of why very young children can enjoy looking at art with a parent. If the art is not too abstract, but bends reality a bit, young children find it extremely interesting. Think about it, here were paintings of people with blue faces and necks twice as long as any you've ever seen. That's something different that catches your attention.

So it turns out that young children, even those who can barely talk, will find modern art interesting. There's no special trick involved and you don't need to create a course in modern art for your wee one. In fact that would probably have a negative effect. Basically if you're willing to take the time to sit with your child and look at art, you child will enjoy the experience and become more familiar with art and actualize more of his potential as an art lover.