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Autism
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Native Savant Talent and Acquired Skill

Linda Pring

Goldsmiths' College, London, UK

Beate Hermelin

Goldsmiths' College, London, UK

Michael Buhler

Iain Walker

City and Guilds of London Art School, London, UK

The paper represents an attempt to evaluate the effect of professional art training on savant artistic ability, and focuses on the work of the artist Stephen Wiltshire. It was undertaken jointly by two of Stephen's own tutors at art school and the two principal authors. The context of the research was, by its nature, not experimental but attempted to look at possible artistic and technical developments in relation to characteristics of autistic savant abilities. Savant ability has often been regarded as a fixed entity which cannot be accounted for solely in terms of continuous practice. There have however been few reports of the effect of expert tuition. As the young savant artist investigated here had previously almost exclusively used line drawing, and had rarely employed tonal values (shading), this dimension was focused upon as giving a possible indication of the effectiveness of teaching. In addition, structured interviews concerned with a detailed analysis of Stephen's work showed that although there was considerable progress during his college attendance, autism also appeared to set limits to Stephen's artistic development in regard to artistic intentions and subject agenda.

Key Words: art • autism • education • learning • savant

Autism, Vol. 1, No. 2, 199-214 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/1362361397012006
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