Saturday

Child Art Genius or Hoax?

Marla Olmstead (born 2000 in Binghamton, New York) is an artist, considered by some to be a child prodigy of abstract art. Others consider "her" art a hoax -- perpetrated by her father who is a frustrated artist. According to her family, Olmstead began painting before her second birthday and by 2004 had attracted international media attention. Her abstract art pieces have been as large as five feet square, hailed by critics as impressively complex, and have sold for tens of thousands of US dollars. Rarely has anyone but her parents witnessed her art during its creation. This lack of verification has caused many skeptics to believe that Marla's father is really the painter behind "her" paintings. According to her family -- the only people who claim to have seen her actually finish a painting -- 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 amateur painting. Eventually, "Marla's work" was on display at a local coffee-shop. Soon after a customer bought one of "Marla's paintings" for $250, a local art gallery owner was shown one of her works and eventually organized a show at his gallery. From that point forward, paintings attributed to Marla began to sell frequently. The popularity of work attributed to Marla 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 Marla's 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. Marla's skill is so great that critics and media alike have drawn comparisons to abstract artists Wassily Kandinsky and the famed Jackson Pollock. She has attracted media attention from The New York Times, Time magazine, CBS news, and BBC News. This is all based upon the notion that it is actually Marla who is creating the paintings... (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art