Works by well-known CoBrA artists are presented shoulder to shoulder with those of contemporary artists. Although the way we think about children has changed considerably since the 1950s, the artists in the exhibition have one thing in common: they are all dead serious about children. Together, the artworks offer a varied and sometimes critical view of the creative expression of the child.

The playing child

With their attitude to life and playfulness, children were a powerful source of inspiration for the CoBrA movement (1948-1951) in their desire to build a new society and to create new art. According to the artists, the open-minded and spontaneous attitude of a child showed how you could do things your own way by not caring about what is ‘good’ or ‘right’ in the eyes of others. This greatly appealed to them, as they believed that a world in which the Second World War could have happened had to be completely transformed. As artists, they therefore wanted to make art that would make people rethink their existing ideas, thus starting a revolution.

The child in today’s art

Scientific research has now shown that children in primary school are more creative than older children or adults. At the same time, we have also come to realise that not everything children do or make is completely ‘pure’, ‘spontaneous’ or ‘honest’. For children have indeed learned how to draw and the environment in which they grow up does influence their creative expressions right from the start. In today’s art the interest in the child is thus often a way to make critical observations about society.

This is clearly evident in the video installations of Liz Magic Laser, Adelita Husni-Bey, Beatrice Gibson, Priscila Fernandes and Joost Conijn. They each in their own way reflect on the way children’s upbringing and education impact them and their future role in society. At the same time, many contemporary artists are as fascinated and inspired by the creativity and play of children as the CoBrA artists were, as the interactive installations of Maze de Boer, Nicolás Paris, Stéphanie Marin and Brian Belott show.