Arno Stern

Born in 1924 in Kassel (Germany), but also of French nationality, Arno Stern is a researcher and teacher. At 22 he started working in an institution for war orphans. There he discovered and understood the importance of the painting play and he laid the foundation to what has today become a well-known scientific concept – the Semiology of Expression.
He was appointed technical expert of UNESCO at the International Congress of Bristol in 1950. In 1953, he founded the “Académie du Jeudi“, which later he named “Closlieu”. He expanded the scope of his studies and, between 1967 – 1972 he traveled to Mauritania, Peru, Niger, Guatemala, Mexico, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, New Guinea and others to understand how the phenomenon he discovered could apply across the globe.
Today he still runs his Closlieu and also he trains hundreds of practitioners from all parts of the world. Most recently, in 2013 he founded the Arno Stern Institut (Laboratory of observation and preservation of spontaneous child provisions).

Arno Stern brought Closlieu in Paris as well, introducing to Parisians the concept of painting room for people of various ages, for personal expression without any constraints or competition.

He is also the author of several books, available at least in French, German and Italian. Among some of his works you can find titles like : “Heureux comme un enfant qui peint”, “Le jeu de peindre”, “L’âge d’or de l’expression”, “La Traccia naturale”, “Der Malort” and many others.