Posted at 05:06 PM ET, 05/24/2011 Aelita Andre, four-year-old prodigy painter
By Elizabeth Flock/The Washington Post
(Screengrab from youtube.com) Aelita Andre is four years old.
She’s also a Russian abstract painter who has already been
compared to Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali,
and Jackson Pollack.
Art critics have praised her work for its use of the techniques of
“automatism” and “accidentalism,” branches of surrealist art.
She had her first show when she was one year old
and has another show in New York on June 4.
But what’s also admirable about Andre as a child prodigy is
that it doesn’t appear that she’s being forced to
do something she doesn’t love,like a tennis star
who burns out by 14.
Nor is she filled with anxiety while plying her craft,
like chess champion Bobby Fischer,
who later became known for his angry outburts.
Anyone who watches Andre paint can tell she loves
to fling the colors onto the canvas.
She loves to tell stories while she works.
She even periodically yells “kist, kist!”
(the Russian word for paintbrush).
