Ice Age Art, Autism, and Vision: How We See/How We Draw

Abstract

This paper explores the nature of images created by Paleolithic artists and precocious autistic artists in regard to drawing techniques and image function. A possible explanation for commonalities between these images is proposed based on the research of David Marr (1982). Chauvet Cave will be used to begin the discussion of Ice Age art (Chauvet, Deschamps & Hillaire, 1996). Then, 7-year-old Jamie serves as exemplar of a precocious autistic child artist (Kellman, 1996). Finally, the role of the early vision process and the construction of meaning in the art of these two types of artists will be compared. The importance of this undertaking lies in the increased understanding of the similarities of visual images founded on observed reality in artmaking of both autistic and non-autistic artists. At the same time, this inquiry provides a possible explanation for the source of these vivid images in the human vision system itself.