Arno Stern has liberated painting from the limits of communication. In creating the Closlieu, he has made previously-incommunicable Expression possible.
His pedagogy is based on the absolute respect of the individual. It gives the practitioner an uncommon function, not at all that of a master, but that of the servant of an exhilarating form of play. Through Play-Of-Painting, latent and unsuspected capacities unfold in every human being.
The ability to trace appears very early among little children’s gestures. The very first traces are dependent on functional motor abilities. They then grow, following a programmed inner process, and not, as some have claimed, through the children’s observation of their environment.
Arno Stern has given the name Formulation to the set of signs born out of this natural sequence. Formulation is not limited to a given age. It is part of each phase of every human being’s life.
The increased interest in children’s drawings, first appeared in the 19th century, led from the beginning to faulty assumptions. Some children have been considered more gifted for drawing than others. Children’s drawings have either been used to communicate, or considered to be merely a step on the path towards the arts. A threefold mistake, on the basis of which artistic education has been developed, as well as art therapy, in more recent years. There is a completely different vision of the Trace, which is neither limited to childhood, nor pertained to the arts.
