‘Swing, They’re Burning Books’

  • Matthew Fishburn
Chapter

Abstract

In July 1940, Life magazine published a series of paintings and drawings made by American and British children who had been asked to respond creatively to the war news.1 The first paintings reproduced in the article are by American children, produced under the guidance of the New York University Clinic for Gifted Children. One 15-year-old boy’s painting of a soldier disembowelled on barbed wire hints at over-exposure to Salvador Dali, while 13-year-old David Simonson is photographed proudly displaying his sketch of a soldier protecting a woman from an advancing tank. ‘The woman at the soldier’s feet’, he announced, ‘is Civilization.’ After this cavalcade of American Art, the Life editors seemed a little nonplussed by the efforts of the British children, and evidently felt the need to caution their readers that the designs were a little more prosaic, sounding a warning note about their ‘childish zest in wartime gadgets … fantastic bombing planes and anti-aircraft guns’. And, sure enough, most of the British images are more interested in the Blitz than in the great movements of art, with several drawing long lines of stylized bombers being fi red on by anti-aircraft guns.

Keywords

British Child Gift Child York Time Magazine American Response York Public Library 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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© Matthew Fishburn 2008

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  • Matthew Fishburn

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