An Artist in Every Child-A Child in Every Artist: Artistic Toys and Art for the Child at the Kunstschau 1908

This article analyzes the nexus of women, children, and primitivism at the landmark Vienna Kunstschau exhibition of 1908 staged by the Klimt Group. Because of women's "natural" connection to child rearing, female art students in Secessionist Vienna were perceived as ideal designers of toys, books, and furniture inspired by the primitivism of the untutored art of the child and by traditional folk-art toys. Critical reactions to the Art for the Child section of the Kunstschau revealed the discursive similarity of women's and children's art in the eyes of conservative and progressive critics alike; whether this affinity was praised or condemned revealed critics' broader attitudes toward the Secessionist Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) and the limits of women's inclusion in this project. The Klimt Group's serious investment in child art suggests that artistic toys were far from child's play; rather, the toys were integral to their greater philosophies on the beautification of utility and the interpenetration of art and everyday life.