Investigates the drawing and copying skills of nine autistic and eight mentally retarded children matched for mental age. Results indicate a similarity of performance for the drawing tasks and significant differences concerning the copying. Discusses the specific functions performed better by the autistic children and provides illustrative…

Highlights similarities and differences between the art making of normally developing and mentally retarded individuals. Defines pathological art as outsider art that can never be creative in the sense of relating to the artistic domain and engaging in a creative dialog with other artists that shape that domain. (MJP)

Presents a series of pictures drawn by an autistic adult over a period of years. The pictures represent recollections of a day in his childhood. This representation is notable because of its consistent theme, as well as its reflection of the ability to reexperience and enjoy pleasant past memories. (MJP)

Reviews two long-term case studies examining the art produced by two artistically gifted Down Syndrome patients. Their work shows a unique personal style characterized by flat, nonperspective compositions, canonical and mixed profile shapes, and symmetry. Both artists depict androgynous persons in their untutored drawings. Includes drawing samples…

Provides an overview of the research literature concerning the development of graphic art skills, relevant instructional methods, and the specific use of visual models as an instructional method. Pertinent findings, relevant methodological issues, and major conclusions are all discussed. Briefly addresses the viewpoints of gestalt and learning…

Traces the development of artistic ability in a six-year-old boy with autism and mild mental retardation. Addresses questions concerning autism and artistic development including whether intellectual realism is a necessary precursor to visual realism and whether a two-dimensional photographic memory is used as opposed to three-dimensional…

Reviews the work of neurobiologist, David Marr, concerning artistic ability and autism. Summarizes Marr's theory of perceptual vision illuminating the relationships among object, observer, perceptual process, and image. Briefly reviews the cases of four autistic people with extraordinary drawing skills. (MJP)

Analyzes the research strategies, stimuli, subjects, statistical strategies, and relative variables in 34 empirical studies on children's representation of three-dimensional objects. The studies fell into three categories: children's representation of spatial relationships within an object, between two objects, and studies that included both. (MJP)