| Critics see the influence of the famous artist in the paintings of the four-year-old avant-garde artist Today, a solo exhibition of avant-garde artist Marla Olmsted opens in a private gallery in New York. The main highlight of this exhibition is not the works themselves, but their author - Marla is only four years old. Using brushes, his own fingers and a machine tool, the child paints one and a half meter canvases. Despite the fact that Marla still draws according to the principle known to every parent of young children, the brighter the more beautiful, and her works may seem to the average person like primitive children’s scribblings, she has already earned respect and recognition among American art critics. And from the sale of 25 works by Marla, her parents have already earned 40 thousand dollars.
It is noteworthy that some overseas critics find in her paintings the “influence” of such famous abstractionists, whose names are hardly familiar to a four-year-old girl. “It’s amazing that a child can paint such pictures,” New York gallery owner Anthony Brunelli said on the eve of the exhibition. - They have bright colors, they are very expressive in the way they apply paint. Some paintings are reminiscent of the works of Wassily Kandinsky, some of Jackson Pollock.”
The creative experience of the young talent is only two years. Her career as an artist, according to her parents, began quite by accident. Two-year-old Marla constantly interfered with her father, amateur artist Mark Olmstead, painting a portrait of his wife. To distract the child from himself, Mark gave the girl brushes and paints and sat her down next to him. This is how her first painting appeared. “Now I assist her, hold her brushes,” admits the father of the miracle child. “Like all great artists, she didn’t wait long and acquired an apprentice.”
Recognized abstract artist Marla Olmsted does not yet know how to draw even flowers, butterflies and trees, and she can only judge painting in general on the level of beautiful or ugly. However, according to some critics, knowledge of art history and painting technique is not the main thing here. Painting, they believe, is primarily not so much a demonstration of skill as a way of expression. In this case, abstract art must be recognized as the most advanced stage of visual activity, which is accessible to both the master and the child. But unlike the classics of this movement, whose works were recognized already at the end of their work, or even after death, Marla and her parents are reaping the benefits now. According to Mr. Brunelli, six of the ten paintings presented at the exhibition have already been sold to private collections, and the price of the remaining ones can reach 10 thousand dollars per canvas. He also noted that recently about 20 collectors of contemporary art from different countries, including Japan, have expressed a desire to buy works by the young talent.
Despite the fact that now the prodigy’s paintings are very popular among connoisseurs, and, according to Marla’s father, the girl is “developing her technique every day, holding her brush more correctly and painting more consciously,” art critics do not undertake to predict her professional future. “Of course, over the last year she has made enormous progress, each of her subsequent works is better than the previous ones, but the question is whether in 5-10 years she will be as passionate about painting as she is now,” Mr. Brunelli explained. Anna ShPAK |
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