Naïve art

Naïve artis usually defined asvisual artthat is created by a person who lacks the formal education and training that a professional artist undergoes (in anatomy,art history,technique,perspective,ways of seeing).^[1]When this aesthetic is emulated by a trained artist, the result is sometimes calledprimitivism,pseudo-naïve art,^[2]orfaux naïve art.^[3]

Unlikefolk art,naïve art does not necessarily derive from a distinct popular cultural context or tradition;^[1]indeed, at least in the advanced economies and since thePrinting Revolution,awareness of the localfine arttradition has been inescapable, as it diffused throughpopular printsand other media. Naïve artists are aware of "fine art" conventions such asgraphical perspectiveand compositional conventions, but are unable to fully use them, or choose not to. By contrast,outsider art(art brut) denotes works from a similar context but which have only minimal contact with the mainstream art world.

Naïve art is recognized, and often imitated, for its childlike simplicity and frankness.^[4]Paintings of this kind typically have a flatrendering stylewith a rudimentary expression of perspective.^[5]One particularly influential painter of "naïve art" wasHenri Rousseau(1844–1910), a FrenchPost-Impressionistwho was discovered byPablo Picasso.

The definition of the term, and its "borders" with neighbouring terms such as folk art and outsider art, has been a matter of some controversy. Naïve art is a term usually used for the forms of fine art, such as paintings and sculptures, made by a self-taught artist, while objects with a practical use come under folk art. But this distinction has been disputed.^[6]Another term that may be used, especially of paintings and architecture, is "provincial", essentially used for work by artists who had received some conventional training, but whose work unintentionally falls short of metropolitan or court standards.

Characteristics

Alfred Wallis,1942, beforeNoah's Ark

Naïve art^[7]is often seen asoutsider artthat is by someone without formal (or little) training or degree. While this was true before the twentieth century, there are nowacademiesfor naïve art. Naïve art is now a fully recognized art genre, represented in art galleries worldwide.

The characteristics of naïve art have an awkward relationship to the formal qualities of painting, especially not respecting the three rules of the perspective (such as defined by theProgressive Painters of the Renaissance):

Decrease of the size of objects proportionally with distance,
Muting of colors with distance,
Decrease of the precision of details with distance,

The results are:

Effects of perspective geometrically erroneous (awkward aspect of the works, children's drawings look, or medieval painting look, but the comparison stops there)
Strong use of pattern, unrefined color on all the plans of the composition, without enfeeblement in the background,
An equal accuracy brought to details, including those of the background which should be shaded off.

Simplicity rather than subtlety are all supposed markers of naïve art. It has, however, become such a popular and recognizable style that many examples could be calledpseudo-naïve.

Whereas naïve art ideally describes the work of an artist who did not receive formal education in anart schooloracademy,for example Henri Rousseau orAlfred Wallis,'pseudo naïve' or 'faux naïve' art describes the work of an artist working in a more imitative or self-conscious mode and whose work can be seen as more imitative than original.

Strict naïvety is unlikely to be found in contemporary artists, given the expansion ofAutodidactismas a form of education in modern times. Naïve categorizations are not always welcome by living artists,^[8]^[9]but this is likely to change as dignifying signals are known. Museums devoted to naïve art now exist inKecskemét,Hungary;Kovačica,Serbia;Riga,Latvia;Jaén,Spain;Rio de Janeiro,Brazil;VicqandParis,France. Examples of English-speaking living artists who acknowledge their naïve style are: Gary Bunt,^[10]Lyle Carbajal,^[11]Gabe Langholtz,^[12]Gigi Mills,^[13]Barbara Olsen,^[14]Paine Proffitt,^[15]and Alain Thomas.^[16]

"Primitive art" is another term often applied to art by those without formal training, but is historically more often applied to work from certain cultures that have been judged socially or technologically "primitive" by Western academia, such as Native American, subsaharan African or Pacific Island art (seeTribal art). This is distinguished from the self-conscious, "primitive" inspired movementprimitivism.Another term related to (but not completely synonymous with) naïve art isfolk art.

The terms "naïvism" and "primitivism" also exist, and are usually applied to professional painters working in the style of naïve art (likePaul Gauguin,Mikhail Larionov,andPaul Klee).^[17]

Term

In 1870, in his poemAu Cabaret-Vert, 5 heures du soir,Arthur Rimbauduses the wordnaïfto designate “clumsy” pictorial representations:“I contemplated the very naive subjects of the tapestry”,which is perhaps the case of the origin of thenaïfemployment byGuillaume Apollinairesome time later.

Movements

Nobody knows exactly when the first naive artists appeared on the scene, as from the first manifestations of art right up to the days of the "Modern Classic", naive artists quite unconsciously bequeathed us unmistakable signs of their creative activity. At all events, naive art can be regarded as having occupied an "official" position in the annals of twentieth-century art since – at the very latest – the publication of theDer Blaue Reiter,an almanac in 1912.Wassily KandinskyandFranz Marc,who brought out the almanac, presented 6 reproductions of paintings byle Douanier' Rousseau (Henri Rousseau),comparing them with other pictorial examples. However, most experts agree that the year that naive art was "discovered" was 1885, when the painterPaul Signacbecame aware of the talents of Henri Rousseau and set about organizing exhibitions of his work in a number of prestigious galleries.^[18]

The Sacred Heart painters

German art collector and criticWilhelm Uhdeis known as the principal organiser of the first Naïve Art exhibition, which took place in Paris in 1928. The participants wereHenri Rousseau,André Bauchant,Camille Bombois,Séraphine LouisandLouis Vivin,known collectively as the Sacred Heart painters.

Hlebine School

A term applied to Croatian naive painters working in or around the village ofHlebine,near the Hungarian border, from about 1930. At this time, according to theWorld Encyclopedia of Naive Art(1984), the village amounted to little more than 'a few muddy winding streets and one-storey houses', but it produced such a remarkable crop of artists that it became virtually synonymous withYugoslavnaive painting.^[19]

Hlebineis a small picturesque municipality in the north of Croatia that in 1920s became a setting against which a group of self-taught peasants began to develop a unique and somewhat revolutionary style of painting. This was instigated by leading intellectuals of the time such as the poetAntun Gustav Matošand the biggest name in Croatian literature,Miroslav Krleža,who called for an individual national artistic style that would be independent from Western influences. These ideas were picked up by a celebrated artist from Hlebine –Krsto Hegedušićand he went on to found the Hlebine School of Art in 1930 in search of national “rural artistic expression”.^[20]

Ivan Generalićwas the first master of the Hlebine School, and the first to develop a distinctive personal style, achieving a high standard in his art.^[21]

After the Second World War, the next generation of Hlebine painters tended to focus more on stylized depictions of country life taken from imagination. Generalić continued to be the dominant figure, and encouraged younger artists, including his sonJosip Generalić.

The Hlebine school became a worldwide phenomenon with the1952 Venice Biennaleand exhibitions in Brazil and Brussels.^[22]

Some of the best known naive artists areDragan Gaži,Ivan Generalić,Maria Prymachenko,Josip Generalić,Krsto Hegedušić,Mijo Kovačić,Ivan Lacković-Croata,Franjo Mraz,Ivan VečenajandMirko Virius.

Artists

Museums and galleries

Croatian Museum of Naïve Art,Zagreb,Croatia
Musée international d'Art naïf Anatole Jakovsky,Nice,France
Musée d'Art Naïf – Max Fourny,Paris,France
International Museum of Naive Art,Vicq,France
Museum of Bad Art,Massachusetts
National Folk Decorative Art Museum,Kyiv,Ukraine
Zander Collection,Cologne,Germany

References

^^a ^bBenedetti, Joan M. (19 April 2008)."Folk Art Terminology Revisited: Why It (Still) Matters".In Roberto, K. R. (ed.).Radical Cataloging: Essays at the Front.McFarland. p. 113.ISBN 978-1-4766-0512-8.
^Risatti, Howard (15 September 2009)."Aesthetics and the Function/Nonfunction Dichotomy".A Theory of Craft: Function and Aesthetic Expression.Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 223.ISBN 978-0-8078-8907-7.OCLC 793525283.
^Levy, Silvano(2008).Lines of Thought: The Drawings of Desmond Morris.Kettlestone: Kettlestone Press. p. 138.ISBN 978-0-9560153-0-3.OCLC 377804527.
^Walker, John Albert (26 April 1992).Glossary of Art, Architecture, and Design Since 1945.London: Library Association Publishing. p. 433.ISBN 978-0-85365-639-5.OCLC 26202538.
^Matulka, Denise I. (2008)."Anatomy of a Picture Book: Picture, Space, Design, Medium, and Style § Naïve Art".A Picture Book Primer: Understanding and Using Picture Books.Westport: Libraries Unlimited. p. 80.ISBN 978-1-59158-441-4.OCLC 225846825.
^Wertkin, Gerard C. (2004). "Introduction". In Wertkin, Gerald C. Encyclopedia of American Folk Art. New York, London: Routledge. pp. xxxiv–xxxvi.
^Nathalia BrodskaïaL'Art naïféd. Parkstone InternationalISBN 9781859956687
^Geller, Amy."Lure of the Naïve"(PDF).amygellerillustration /.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on September 4, 2012.RetrievedJuly 12,2016.
^[translation, [text] Natalia Brodskaia; Darton], adaptation Mike (2000).Naïve art.New York: Parkstone Press. p. 74.ISBN 1859953352.
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^"Lyle Carbajal: Painting".notey.RetrievedJuly 12,2016.
^"Gabe Langholtz Naive Modern".saatchiart.Archived fromthe originalon September 21, 2016.RetrievedJuly 12,2016.
^"Gigi Mills".askart.RetrievedJuly 12,2016.
^"Biography Barbara Olsen".barbaraolsen.RetrievedJuly 12,2016.
^"All Work: Paine Proffitt".acframinggallery.co.uk.RetrievedJuly 12,2016.
^"Alain THOMAS, an artist in the Garden of Eden".alain-thomas.RetrievedJuly 12,2016.
^Irina Arnoldova. Painter Sergey Zagraevsky: the view of an art critic
^"WetCanvas: Articles: Jan and Adrie Martens: An Introduction to Naive Art".wetcanvas.Retrieved2016-03-17.
^"Hlebine School – oi".{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal=(help)
^"Hlebine School of Art: More than peasant doodles".MoonProject.Retrieved2016-03-17.
^Otvorena.hr, Otvorena mreza -."The Croatian Museum of Naive Art – Guide to the Permanent Display".hmnu.org.Archived fromthe originalon 2013-09-27.Retrieved2016-03-17.
^DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Croatia.Penguin. 2015-04-07.ISBN 9781465441737.