John Willats

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John Willats
Occupation(s)Psychologist, Sculptor
Academic background
Alma materRoyal College of Art
Academic work
InstitutionsLoughborough University

University of Birmingham

Polytechnic of East London

John Willats (died April 2006)[1] was a psychologist and artist known for his research on pictorial systems of depiction and perspective, which included a taxonomy of the methods of visual projection used by various artists.[2] He was considered an expert on children's drawings and how children develop drawing abilities.[3]

Biography

Willats studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art. He had degrees in mechanical sciences and psychology. He worked under the supervision of Richard Wollheim at London University.[4] He was teaching sculpture and drawing at Walthamstow School of Art when along with Fred Dubery, he published his first book, Drawing Systems[5] Willats was an Honorary Research Fellow at the Polytechnic of East London[6] and was an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Birmingham.[7] He was a professor at Loughborough University.

In 2000, Willats completed a sculpture celebrating the millennium in a former hometown of Bradford-on-Avon, England. The sculpture is a life-sized representation of a mill girl, known as "Millie", that celebrates the town's history.[8]

Willats's millennium statue 'Millie' in Bradford on Avon

Research

In Perspective and other drawing systems (1983), Willats and Dubery defined formal categories for pictorial systems, which they called projection systems.[9][10] Willats posited that people have an innate capability to understand the grammar of pictorial depictions, which is related to Chomsky's theory of universal grammar.[11] In Making sense of children's drawings, Willats proposed that children learn drawing in a manner comparable to language learning, by picking up increasingly complex rules of depiction.[5]

Books

  • Dubery, F. & Willats, J. (1972). Drawing systems. Studio Vista.
  • Dubery, F. & Willats, J. (1983). Perspective and other drawing systems. The Hubert Press.
  • Willats, J. (1997). Art and representation: New principles in the analysis of pictures. Princeton University Press.
  • Willats, J. (2006). Making sense of children's drawings. Psychology Press.

Representative papers

  • Willats, J. (1977). How children learn to draw realistic pictures. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 29(3), 367–382.
  • Willats, J. (1981). What do the marks in the picture stand for? The child's acquisition of systems of transformation and denotation. Review of Research in Visual Arts Education, 7(1), 18-33.
  • Willats, J. (1987). Marr and pictures: an information-processing account of children's drawings. Archives de Psychologie, 55(213), 105-125.
  • Willats, J. (1992). The representation of extendedness in children's drawings of sticks and discs. Child Development, 63(3), 692-710.
  • Willats, J., & Durand, F. (2005). Defining pictorial style: Lessons from linguistics and computer graphics. Axiomathes, 15(3), 319-351.

References

  1. ^ "TRACEY - Ambiguity - Willats". www.lboro.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  2. ^ Smith, Paul (2013). "Cézanne's "Primitive" Perspective, or the "View from Everywhere"". The Art Bulletin. 95 (1): 102–119. doi:10.1080/00043079.2013.10786108. ISSN 0004-3079. JSTOR 43188797. S2CID 193212184.
  3. ^ Riley, Howard (2009). "Towards a Syntax of Visual Delight: The Tension between Surface Qualities and Illusory Depth in Drawing" (PDF). TRACEY: Education.
  4. ^ Tormey, Jane; Whale, George (2002). "On Drawing, Visual Language and the Pictorial Image: An Interview with John Willats". International Journal of Art & Design Education. 21 (3): 292–302. doi:10.1111/1468-5949.00326. ISSN 1476-8070.
  5. ^ a b Willats, John (2005). Making sense of children's drawings. Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 1-4106-1356-9. OCLC 70787938.
  6. ^ Willats, John (1992). "The Representation of Extendedness in Children's Drawings of Sticks and Discs". Child Development. 63 (3): 692–710. doi:10.2307/1131355. ISSN 0009-3920. JSTOR 1131355. PMID 1376228.
  7. ^ Willats, John (1997). Art and representation : new principles in the analysis of pictures. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-08737-7. OCLC 35397908.
  8. ^ "Geograph:: 'Millie', Bradford on Avon © Humphrey Bolton". www.geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  9. ^ Freeman, Norman (1 November 1985). "Book Review: Perspective and Other Drawing Systems". The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A. 37 (4): 639–641. doi:10.1080/14640748508400924d (inactive 31 January 2024). ISSN 0272-4987.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link)
  10. ^ Greene, Richard (1984). "Review of Perspective and Other Drawing Systems". Leonardo. 17 (1): 61. doi:10.2307/1574884. ISSN 0024-094X. JSTOR 1574884.
  11. ^ Smith, Paul (2011). "Pictorial Grammar: Chomsky, John Willats, and the Rules of Representation". Art History. 34 (3): 562–593. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8365.2011.00835.x.
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