Maybe Your Child Could Have Painted That: Comparing Abstract Works by Artists, Abstract Art Child Prodigies, and Typical Children

Children gifted in the visual arts typically begin to draw realistically around the age of 3. Recently, a new kind of gifted child artist has been reported in the press--children who paint nonrepresentationally and whose works have been likened to those by abstract expressionists. It is unclear whether the works of these abstract art prodigies are any different from the abstract paintings of typical children. In four studies, we examined nonexperts' abilities to distinguish paintings by abstract prodigies from those by typical children and those by abstract expressionist artists. Our findings revealed that nonexperts were able to distinguish the works by abstract prodigies from those by typical children, but they could not distinguish works by abstract prodigies from those by abstract expressionists artists. While precocious realism has been noted most often as the indicator of visual art giftedness, our studies revealed a different kind of nonfigurative visual art giftedness.