Children and art form a paradoxical relationship. While many children enjoy drawing and painting, they rarely show interest in fine art. When they do begin to appreciate art, drawing suddenly seems difficult and embarrassing to them. Adults, on the other hand, have admired since the beginning of modernism how freely and originally children handle pencils and brushes - more liberated, inspired, and capable than adults themselves. But is it art? No, children's drawings are certainly not considered fine art. Strangely enough, there are films, books, radio plays, television shows, and theater productions specifically for children, but no art exhibitions designed for them.
With a spectacular exhibition that has been remarkably well-attended during these rainy weeks, Munich's Haus der Kunst is now attempting to do exactly that. The museum is showcasing contemporary art since 1968, but presented very differently than usual - specifically 'For Children.'
Some of the artworks target emotions and instincts that, presumably, can no longer be activated in adults. Take Antoine Catala's enchanted plastic garden with its meadows, hills, trees, ponds, and speaker stones. This synthetic landscape, bathed in twilight, not only invites climbing and hiding but is also full of signs and sounds. Pictograms are embedded in the artificial rocks - symbols that help autistic children distinguish and name actions. For adults, however, these symbols are difficult to decipher.
Another example is Ernesto Neto's installation 'Uni Verso Bébé II Lab,' a tent-like giant white womb whose interior, filled with soft fabrics, balls, and cushions, is designed to convey a primal feeling of security, intimacy, and lightness.
Other artists captivate children through deliberate breaking of conventions. Basim Magdy, for instance, has modified ping-pong tables for his work 'Pingpinpoolpong,' adding obstacles and barriers. Visitors practice a mix of table tennis, billiards, and pinball - an 'unplayable sport' that leads to failure and laughter, as the wall text truthfully predicts. The magnet-shaped skate sculpture that Koo Jeong A has constructed on the Eisbach side of the building - partly outside, partly inside - is inspired by the long-established rule-breaking of skateboarders who discovered the flat ramps decades ago.
Other artists help children cope with a frightening world. Eva Kotátková has wallpapered an entire room with her daughter using newspaper pages, complete with dark images of war, disasters, and displacement. However, from the small room in the center - protected by good monsters and snakes and serving as both hiding place and lookout - these disturbing realities become more bearable.
Indonesian artist and puppeteer Agus Nur Amal Pmtoh explains to children the tsunami that devastated his homeland of Aceh in 2004 and how people helped each other afterward. He uses a giant stylized wave that sweeps away hundreds of toys, a circular conveyor belt, and videos of his ironically serious puppet theater performances for trauma processing.
Like many contemporary art exhibitions, this one both excites and challenges visitors with video works. Particularly captivating were Harun Farocki's 'bedtime stories' from the 1970s. The avant-garde filmmaker staged the improvised stories he created with his twin daughters in the evenings as short films in which the girls function as narrators - another parent-child collaboration. The wit lies in transferring the spontaneously fabricated story into the medium of film, which unexpectedly becomes proof that even the most fantastic events could actually happen exactly as told. And because it's two very alert children telling stories before going to sleep, these can't be dreams.
An exhibition for children is always also an exhibition for parents. They're pleased to note that some names they recognize from adult exhibitions are represented here. Of course, children should have fun, but they should also be introduced to art. However, this doesn't always work. Olafur Eliasson's all-white Lego city for self-construction appeals to all generations, even if the idea isn't particularly original. But children don't know what to make of contributions by Bruce Naumann or Meredith Monk.
Occasionally, children aren't the addressees but rather the subject of the works, as with videos by Lygia Pape and Ana Mendieta, both showing play activities with giant cloths from the 1960s and 1970s. They're interesting nonetheless. What was once performance art can now be experienced at any elementary school festival.
The exhibition is a major learning experience, especially for the museum itself. The exhibition demands quite a bit from children because much of it is so far removed from conventional children's aesthetics. But the museum faces an even greater challenge and will likely learn the most from this exhibition experience. Security guards sometimes struggled not only with a full house but with a house full of children who want to touch, carry around, and stack up the art. They scolded the children harshly on multiple occasions.
Not everything the curators conceived works perfectly. Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander asked children about their greatest fears and designed superhero-like capes with them to protect against dangers such as spiders, nuclear power plants, environmental pollution, or darkness. However, because the costumes are very precious, they hang from the ceiling and can only be tried on once a month - uninteresting for children. More elaborate interactive artworks like Ernesto Neto's cave or the digital installation 'The Lost Jungle' by Indonesian artist collective Tromarama, where children can populate a magnificent virtual jungle world with animals via iPad, were closed or out of order during the author's visit.
Work on the grandiose collective artwork 'Mega Please Draw Freely,' spanning hundreds of square meters and allowing children to paint directly on the Nazi marble in the entrance hall, was also paused because the moisture outside dissolves the paint. While this exhibition doesn't reveal what the ideal art exhibition for children would truly look like, 'For Children' comes pretty close to that ideal.
'For Children. Art Stories Since 1968' runs at Haus der Kunst, Munich, until February 1, 2026.
