My Kid Could Paint That

The real question in this documentary is What Is Art?? Not in a cheesy sort of way, argued by art critics. This is a legit, anyone can question it argument. That's because the art in question is made by a four year old girl. Does finger painting a beautiful design count as a $10,000 art piece? If a little girl is splashing paint for fun and it looks the same as a Jackson Pollock, does it really count as the same?

This documentary followed the story of a four year old girl, her younger brother, and her parents right after her first gallery show (yeah, i know), her second even larger and more successful show ($50,000 for some paintings!) and during their intense media scrutiny after a 60 minutes show that claimed the dad was helping her paint and directing her. The filmmaker himself called the legitimacy of the painting into question, and while he obviously felt for the family his doubts were honest and clear. But what I questioned was this- how much help is wrong? Don't normal artists consult friends, spouses etc and say 'hey, how does this look?'. That's asking for help. Is that different from this girls dad saying 'no, i think it looks done now don't you?'. Difficult questions. I'm not sure.


Overall, it was a very well constructed and edited film. Huge moral questions hung over it (like is this major exploitation on the parents part), but it maintained a good balance. And the little girl was just so darn cute. I recommend it for a fun documentary, especially if you get pissed off by some modern art like I do.