MetaChat - A few weeks ago, my nephew

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

18 May 2007

A few weeks ago, my nephew was at the National Gallery of Art in Washington with my parents.→[More:]

At four-and-a-half, he is a great museum-goer, and loves to ponder works of art and point out the things that he likes or finds interesting.

He really wanted to go see the Matisse cutouts up in the tower gallery (he's really into cutting pictures of cars out of magazines and adding them to his collection of vehicular toys).

After studying the works for a while (there are only a few), he posited that the colored parts were just background, and that what Matisse was really creating was the white space.

post by: Hugh Janus at: 13:16 | 11 comments

That blows my mind.

posted by iconomy 18 May | 13:19

Someday your nephew will rule us all. Just wait and see.

posted by tr33hggr 18 May | 13:21

I, for one...

Yeah, that is one amazing kid, right there...

posted by gaspode 18 May | 13:24

Does he do 'kid' stuff too? You know, playing with toy cars and things like that?

posted by essexjan 18 May | 13:29

No. I disagree. He is just wrong.

posted by Lola_G 18 May | 13:37

It also helps that he's completely adorable.

I was on the phone with him last week, and after I finished telling him all about the different kinds of computer printers and how they work, and how color printers blend cyan, magenta, yellow, and black to make all the other colors, and what a color wheel is, and why color printers are often slower than black-and-whites, he asked, "So [Hugh], what do you want to do now?"

I know he likes to trace pictures from magazines, so I thought I'd suggest a solitary activity so I could talk to my brother for a bit.

"Okay, great! What are you going to trace?" he asked.

"A boat."

"I'm going to trace Pixar cars," he said, and for the next couple minutes I could hear his breathing and the sound of pencil on paper. Then, "[Hugh], do you mind if I put the phone down? It's hard to trace with it under my shoulder."

So I drew a boat on the back of an envelope until, a few minutes later, I heard my brother come into the room and ask, "Oh, did [Hugh] have to go?" before the line went dead.

On preview, oh, yeah, he plays with cars all the time. As a matter of fact, he won't leave the house without a Matchbox car or two secreted about his person. His favorite is a purple low-rider Impala. The manager at his favorite Lebanese restaurant tries to guess what make of car he brought, and which pocket it's in, every time they go out for mezze.

He also goes to preschool, plays with his friends, and takes afternoon naps.

posted by Hugh Janus 18 May | 13:38

(That's a joke for any of you who might not know).

posted by Lola_G 18 May | 13:38

I laughed. He probably would, too. Or he'd say something like, "No, I'm not. I made that cutout under the nickname 'Henri Matisse' last year, when I was three."

posted by Hugh Janus 18 May | 13:42

First Australians consider the dark spaces in the sky to be constellations . Do Maori in NZ?

posted by brujita 18 May | 13:42

heh. my tagline when I was a starving artist was,

medium: white space

posted by chewatadistance 18 May | 14:58

It also helps that he's completely adorable.

Brilliant too.

posted by jason's_planet 18 May | 19:10

← This is a pining thread... || Woo! Yay! Whoa! Errgh! →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN