I Have Drawn Pictures of the War

I Have Drawn Pictures of the War. The Eye of Françoise and Alfred Brauner retraces the history of contemporary conflicts thanks to children’s drawings which give us a moving testimony of these wars. A specific interest for children’s drawings in wartime really arose during the Spanish war (1936-1939), when Françoise and Alfred Brauner, involved in the International Brigades, experienced the value of the graphic mode of expression, its reconstructive function, its cathartic faculty. Throughout their lives, they gathered children’s drawings in wartime and brought out what they tell us of children’s life in times of war, helping us to understand it. To the Spanish drawings were added those from concentration camps, from Japan, Vietnam, Algeria, Lebanon, Cambodia, El Salvador, Afghanistan, Palestine, Chechnya…

This book will enable all readers to consider contemporary wars from an exceptional point of view – a child’s point of view. It is meant more particularly for primary and secondary school teachers who would like to talk about war in class. It is not aimed directly at children – some drawings and their captions are very violent and may upset young children. But they must also spark debates and analyses by bringing to the fore the way children apprehend conflicts. And that is what a journey through the Brauner collection has to offer: a feeling of rediscovering what children say about the war, of hearing paper voices.