Marla Olmstead
Marla Olmstead (born 2000 in Binghamton, New York) is a painter of abstract art. By 2004 she had attracted international media attention.[1] Abstract pieces attributed to her have been as large as five feet (1.52 m) square and have sold for tens of thousands of US dollars.[1]
Early life
According to her parents, Marla Olmstead began painting just before her second birthday in early 2002 when her father, Mark, gave her paint to divert her from distracting him from his own painting. Mark painted for a very brief period after his father died, and makes no claims of being an artist of any variety.[2] Eventually, work attributed to her was on display at a local coffee shop. Soon after a customer bought one of the paintings for $253, a local gallery owner was shown one of her putative works and eventually organized a show at his gallery. From that point forward, paintings attributed to Olmstead began to sell frequently.[3]
Success and media attention
The popularity of her work took off after her first gallery showing, with many of the paintings selling for tens of thousands of US dollars.
To many critics, what is most impressive about her work is her ability to paint in layers and to fill the canvas, instead of painting in one layer and leaving most of the canvas blank, like other four-year olds. Her skill is so great that critics and media alike have drawn comparisons to abstract artists Wassily Kandinsky and Jackson Pollock.[2] She has attracted media attention from The New York Times, Time magazine, CBS News, and BBC News.
Controversy
In February 2005, a report by CBS News' 60 Minutes II raised questions about whether Marla created the paintings on her own. 60 Minutes enlisted the help of Ellen Winner, a child psychologist who studies cognition in the arts and gifted children. Winner was impressed with Marla's work, and indicated that Marla was the first child prodigy she'd seen paint abstractly. The Olmsteads agreed to permit CBS crews to set up a hidden camera in their home to tape their daughter painting a single piece in five hours over the course of a month. When Winner reviewed the tapes, the psychologist said, "I saw no evidence that she was a child prodigy in painting. I saw a normal, charming, adorable child painting the way preschool children paint, except that she had a coach who kept her going." Winner also indicated that the painting created before CBS's hidden camera looked, "less polished than some of Marla's previous works."[4]
The 2007 documentary My Kid Could Paint That, by director Amir Bar-Lev, examines Marla Olmstead, her family, and the controversy surrounding the art attributed to her. The film does not take a position on the question of her works' authenticity, though Bar-Lev is heard during his interviews of Marla's parents and in a piece included as an extra on the DVD expressing doubts about whether Marla created the paintings herself. It includes excerpts from start-to-finish videos of two of Marla's works and questions whether the two works, the 60 Minutes painting (known as "Flowers") and "Ocean", are of the same quality as other works attributed to her.
Present
Despite the negative publicity, work attributed to Marla Olmstead's remains in demand. The painting that Marla unwittingly created before a hidden camera sold for $9,000.
As of October 2007, the Olmsteads' own website offered excerpts from start-to-finish videos of three works by her, "Fairy Map", "Rabbit" and, "Colorful Rain." According to the website, the full versions of the videos are available to collectors and the press. As of August 2008, two of the three works featured in the videos, "Rabbit," and "Colorful Rain," remain unsold.
Marla's parents have stated that proceeds from the sale of her paintings have gone into a college fund.[1]
References
- ^ a b c My Kid Could Paint That [1] , Film, Dir: Amir Bar-Lev, 2007. Cite error: The named reference "mykid" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ a b Child art prodigy wows New York BBC News, 29 September, 2004.
- ^ A Portrait Of the Artist As a Young Girl; Early Ability on Abstracts: 4-Year-Old Paints With Flair The New York Times Michelle York. September 28, 2004.
- ^ New Questions About Child Prodigy from 60 Minutes II
External links
- Marla Olmstead's website
- Anthony Brunelli's gallery contains several of Marla's pieces (click on artists and then scroll to the right to find Marla's work)
- Ode to Pollock II at painterskeys.com (scroll down for the piece)
- Prodigy Schmodigy Doug Harvey's LA Weekly article on 6-year-old Marla
- Can a 4-year-old paint like Pollock Mia Fineman's Slate Magazine article on what it means when a child like Marla produces abstract art
- Doug Harvey's LA Weekly article on Amir Bar-Lev's documentary "My Kid Could Paint That"
- Portrait of the artist as a cherished child, rogerebert.suntimes.com, November 15, 2007. Letter from Mark Olmstead to Roger Ebert, explaining his perception of daughter Marla's story and work.
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