Aelita Andre

Aelita Andre
Born 9 January 2007 (2007-01-09) (age 5)
Nationality Australian
Field Painting
Training None[1]
Movement Abstract expressionism, Surrealism

Aelita Andre (born 9 January 2007[2][3]) is an Australian abstract artist known for her Surrealist painting style and her young age.[4][5] She began to paint when aged nine months, and her work was displayed publicly in a group exhibition shortly after she turned two.[2][6] Her first solo exhibition opened in New York City in June 2011, when she was four years old.[1][6]

Contents

Life

Andre was born to Australian father Michael Andre and Russian mother Nikka Kalashnikova.[1] As a baby, she often watched her parents, both artists themselves, work on canvases on the floor.[2] She learned to paint before she could walk, several months prior to her first birthday.[2][7] She and her family currently reside in Melbourne.[8]

Career

Beginning

Andre's mother, believing her daughter to be a child prodigy, showed some of Andre's paintings to a Melbourne-based art curator when the girl was 22 months old. Impressed with the work, the curator agreed to include it in a group exhibition in the Brunswick Street Gallery, and he began advertising the show with Andre's paintings before he learned of her age.[2] Although he was surprised, he kept his promise to display the work. The show opened shortly after her second birthday and also featured Kalashnikova's photography.[2][6] Several months later, Andre and her parents visited Hong Kong, where she sold her most expensive painting to date for $24,000.[9]

The Prodigy of Color

Andre's first solo exhibition, The Prodigy of Color, ran from 4 June to 25 June 2011 at the Agora Gallery, a vanity gallery in Chelsea.[4][8][10][11] It contained 24 of her paintings, each on sale for between $4,400 and $10,000.[4] The press nicknamed her "the Pee-wee Picasso" after nine of the works sold for a total of more than $30,000.[4][7][12] According to the BBC, these sales may make the four-year-old "the youngest ever professional artist".[1]

Style and critical reception

Art critics have noted Andre's work, classified as abstract expressionism, for its employment of the Surrealist techniques automatism and accidentalism.[6][11] She paints with acrylics and often adds three-dimensional objects, including bark, twigs, and feathers, to the canvases.[8] Buyers of her art at her New York show commented favourably on the paintings' simplicity and richness in texture.[4] A number of major news sources, including Time, the BBC, The Washington Post, the The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC News, and the New York Post, have generally responded favourably to Andre's work and to her early success. Several of them have compared her to Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dalí, and Pablo Picasso.[4][6][9][13] At least one other, The New York Times, acknowledged her widespread notoriety but commented that her paintings "are hardly novel from a formal vantage, nor do they provide added meaning below the surface."[11] It also noted that although her 2009 exhibition in Melbourne was not at a vanity gallery, the Agora Gallery's pay-for-show operation may undermine the legitimacy of her recent international fame.[11]

Related subjects

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Four-year-old artist's NY exhibition". bbc.co.uk. BBC. 5 June 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13660478. Retrieved 9 June 2011. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f Kermond, Clare (8 January 2009). "The curious case of Aelita Andre, artist, aged 2". The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media). Archived from the original on 24 January 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090124030451/http://smh.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/the-curious-case-of-aelita-andre-artist-aged-2/2009/01/07/1231004102593.html. Retrieved 9 June 2011. "She turns two tomorrow." 
  3. ^ Williams, Mike (9 January 2009). "Can a toddler be an artist?". bbc.co.uk. BBC. Archived from the original on 18 February 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090218072533/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2009/01/090109_young_artist.shtml. Retrieved 9 June 2011. "... today, Aelita has been celebrating her second birthday." 
  4. ^ a b c d e f Kelly, Tara (7 June 2011). "Is this four-year-old artist the next Picasso?". Time (Time Warner). http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/06/07/is-this-four-year-old-artist-the-next-picasso/. Retrieved 9 June 2011. 
  5. ^ Flock, Elizabeth (24 May 2011). "Aelita Andre, four-year-old prodigy painter". The Washington Post (Katharine Weymouth). http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/aelita-andre-four-year-old-prodigy-painter/2011/05/24/AFqaIfAH_blog.html. Retrieved 9 June 2011. 
  6. ^ a b c d e Bells, Nadine (25 May 2011). "The Prodigy of Color: Four-year-old Aelita Andre opens NY solo art exhibit". Yahoo! News Canada. Yahoo!. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/good-news/prodigy-color-four-old-aelita-andre-opens-ny-170228669.html. Retrieved 9 June 2011. 
  7. ^ a b Doll, Jen (6 June 2011). "Aelita Andre, artist now showing at a Chelsea gallery, is four years old". The Village Voice (Michael Cohen). http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/06/aelita_andre_4-.php. Retrieved 9 June 2011. 
  8. ^ a b c "Aelita Andre". agora-gallery.com. Agora Gallery. http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/aelita_andre.aspx. Retrieved 9 June 2011. 
  9. ^ a b Hamilton, Brad; Freund, Helen; Venezia, Todd (4 June 2011). "4-year-old artist making splash in city". New York Post (Paul Carlucci). http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/the_kid_pre_picasso_2gsqdQmAPlTt7eRPQlIebO. Retrieved 18 June 2011. 
  10. ^ "How to show artwork in New York City Galleries". agora-gallery.com. Agora Gallery. Archived from the original on 2 January 2010. http://web.archive.org/web/20100102234314/http://agora-gallery.com/galleryinfo/show_artwork_in_New_York_City_galleries.aspx. Retrieved 16 June 2011. 
  11. ^ a b c d Horowitz, Noah (11 June 2011). "Your 4-year-old can't do that". The New York Times (Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr.). http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/opinion/12horowitz.html?pagewanted=1. Retrieved 25 June 2011. 
  12. ^ "Four year old artist opens NY show". Sky News Australia. Australian News Channel Pty Ltd. 6 June 2011. http://www.skynews.com.au/offbeat/article.aspx?id=621779&vId=. Retrieved 9 June 2011. 
  13. ^ "Four-year-old Melbourne artist shows in NY". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 6 June 2011. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/06/3236939.htm?section=justin. Retrieved 25 June 2011. 

External links