You must have seen paintings by these artists. It seems like they were painted by a child. In fact, their authors - adults - are simply not professionals. In painting, naive art was born around the second half of the 19th century. At first, he was not taken seriously, and was not considered an art at all. But over time, the attitude towards this style has changed dramatically.
Meet: "naive"
So, what is commonly called naive art? In painting, this term denotes a special artistic style, the work of folk artists and self-taught, preserving children's freshness and spontaneity in the vision of the world. This definition is given by the Encyclopedia of Arts. However, it is also present in sculpture, architecture, graphics.
Naive art (or “naive”, as it is often called) is not a new direction. As early as the 17th century, unprofessional artists in Europe created their “primitive” masterpieces. However, no one seriously considered these paintings. In an independent artistic style, naive art stood out only at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The roots of "naive" are usually sought in icon painting. You must have seen such icons in some rural provincial temple: they are disproportionate, primitive, nondescript, but incredibly soulful. Traits of naive art can be found in the so-called figures - sculptural images on religious subjects. Such statues are usually installed near Catholic churches and churches (see photo).
Are naive art and primitivism the same thing? On this account, art historians have three different opinions:
- Yes, these are identical concepts.
- Naive art is one of the areas of primitivism.
- These are different concepts. If “naive” is the work of laymen and amateurs, then primitivism is a simplified, stylized work of professional masters.
The main features of the style
Naive art has made a significant contribution to the artistic culture of many countries and peoples. Let's try to highlight the most important features of this artistic style. First of all, they include:
- lack of professional (academic) drawing skills;
- brightness of colors and images;
- lack of linear perspective;
- flatness of the image;
- simplified rhythm;
- pronounced contours of objects;
- generalization of forms;
- simplicity of techniques.
It is worth noting that works of naive art are very diverse in their individual stylistics. Nevertheless, almost all of them are optimistic and life-affirming in spirit.
The geography of naive art
The vast majority of famous naive artists are ordinary people living in villages or small towns. As a rule, they earn a living by physical labor, and they do it in their free time. Often, a passion for drawing wakes up in adulthood or old age.
Naive art originated in France, but then gained unprecedented popularity overseas - in the United States. As early as the end of the 19th century, paintings of naive people in this country were collected for museum and private collections. In Russia, this direction began to develop seriously only in the 80-90s of the last century.
Talking about naive art, one cannot fail to mention the so-called Khlebinsky school. This is a conditional name for several generations of peasant artists from the village of Hlebine, in northern Croatia. Strange as it may seem, the originator of the Khlebinsky (Podravsky) school was the academic artist Krsto Hegedushich (1901-1975). Her masters perfected the glass painting technique. Khlebinsky painting is characterized by motifs from everyday village life.
The main museums of "naive"
“Naive is a state of mind” (Alexander Fomin).
Among all the museums of naive art in the world, three should be especially distinguished: Paris, Moscow and Zagreb.
Since 1985, the Paris Museum of Primitivism has been operating at the foot of Montmarte Hill in a former textile market building. His appearance and existence he owes to the French publisher Max Fourney. Thanks to the efforts of the latter, the core of the current collection was collected, which today has over 600 canvases.
The Moscow Museum of Naive Art has existed since 1998. It is located in an old stone mansion at the address: Union Avenue, 15 a. Now the museum has about 1,500 works. Since there is not enough space in a small building, the expositions change almost every month.
The Croatian capital Zagreb has its own museum of "naive" and primitivism. It is located in the Upper Town, on Mark Square. In his expositions are presented the works of twenty Croatian artists, in particular, Ivan Generalich and Ivan Rabuzin.
Another unique example of "naive" is located in northern Romania. This is the so-called “Merry Cemetery” in the village of Sepyntsa. Here you can see hundreds of colorful tombstones with poetic texts and original drawings.
Naive Art: Paintings and Artists
Geographically in the development of "naive" and primitivism, three regions can be distinguished: the USA, Western Europe and the Balkans. The most famous representatives of naive art in painting are artists of the second half of the XIX - XX centuries, including:
- Henri Rousseau (France).
- Ivan Lackovic-Croata (Croatia).
- Ivan Rabuzin (Croatia).
- Maria Primachenko (Ukraine).
- Grandma Moses (USA).
- Norval Morisso (Canada).
- Ekaterina Medvedeva (Russia).
- Valery Eremenko (Russia).
- Mihai Dascalu (Romania).
- Radi Nedelchev (Bulgaria).
- Stacy Lovejoy (USA).
- Sasha Putrya (Ukraine).
Let's take a closer look at the creativity of the above naive masters.
Henri Russo
The founder of naive art in painting is considered to be Henri Russo, a customs officer who, after retiring, decided to devote himself to fine art. He decorated his canvases with clumsy human figures and funny little animals, not really worrying about the prospect. The first to appreciate the work of Rousseau was his contemporary Picasso. And Paul Gauguin, seeing the paintings of Henri, exclaimed: “This is the truth and the future, this is the real painting!”
Ivan Lackovic-Croata
Lackovic-Croata is one of the students of Hegedusic. In addition to painting, he was also engaged in social and political activities, took an active part in the struggle of Croatia for independence in the early 90s, and was twice elected as a deputy to the Croatian parliament. On his canvases, Ivan Lackovich most often depicted still lifes, scenes from village life, detailed landscapes.
Ivan Rabuzin
Ivan Rabuzin is another Croatian artist, and another prominent representative of naive art in painting. His paintings are often called paradise. The art critic Anatoly Yakovsky awarded Rabuzin himself the title of “greatest naive artist of all time”. Landscapes of Ivan Rabuzin embody purity, extraterrestrial beauty and harmony. Almost all of his paintings are decorated with outlandish trees and fantastic flowers. Moreover, all objects on the canvases of Rabuzin, whether it be hills, forests or clouds, tend to a certain spherical shape.
Maria Primachenko
The brilliant Ukrainian artist Maria Primachenko was born and lived all her life in the tiny village of Bolotnya near Kiev. She began drawing at the age of 17, painting the neighboring huts. Maria’s talent was noticed in the late 30s. Her works have visited exhibitions in Paris, Montreal, Prague, Warsaw and other cities. Throughout her life, the artist has created at least 650 paintings. At the heart of the work of Maria Primachenko are magical flowers and unreal animals invented by her.
Moses Anna Mary
Grandmother Moses is a famous American artist, an internationally recognized icon of naive art. She lived for 101 years, leaving behind hundreds of bright, colorful and cheerful paintings. The uniqueness of Grandma Moses is that she first began drawing at 76 years old. The artist became famous only in the late 1930s, when an eminent collector from New York accidentally saw one of her drawings in the pharmacy window.
The central plots in the paintings of Anna Mary Moses are rural pastorals, everyday scenes from the life of farmers, winter landscapes. The most capacious work of the artist was described by one of the critics in the following phrase:
“The appeal of her paintings is that they depict the lifestyle that Americans love to believe in, but which no longer exists.”
Norval Morisso
Norval Morisso is a Canadian primitive artist of Native American descent. Born in the Ojibwa tribe in the vicinity of Ontario. About himself, he wrote: “I am an artist by nature. I grew up on the stories and legends of my people - and I drew these legends. ” And this, by and large, says it all.
An interesting fact from the artist’s biography: in 1972, during a fire in a hotel in Vancouver, Norval Morisso received serious burns. At that moment, according to Norval himself, Jesus Christ appeared to him. Subsequently, he became for him a new guiding star in creativity. The artist begins to actively draw biblical characters, surprisingly weaving them into the outline of traditional Native American motifs.
Ekaterina Medvedeva
Ekaterina Medvedeva is a self-taught artist from the village of Golubino, Belgorod Region, one of the most prominent representatives of modern Russian “naive”. It was first picked up by a brush in 1976, and already in the early 80s, notes about a “new folk talent” began to appear in the Moscow press. At that time, Katya Medvedeva worked as a regular nurse in a nursing home. In 1984, the artist's works went to an exhibition in Nice, where they made a splash.
Valery Eremenko
Another talented primitive artist from Russia is Valery Eremenko. Born in Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan), studied in Tashkent, today lives and works in Kaluga. The artist has more than a dozen different exhibitions, his works are exhibited at the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts, the Moscow Museum of Naive Art, and are also kept in numerous private collections. Pictures of Valery Eremenko are bright, ironic and incredibly lively.
Mihai Daskalu
Vital, unsophisticated and very juicy plots - these are the main features in the work of the Romanian naive artist Mihai Daskalu. The main characters of his paintings are people. Here they dance, sing, play cards, pick mushrooms, quarrel and fall in love ... In general, they live a full worldly life. Through his canvases, this artist seems to be trying to convey to us one single thought: all beauty is in life itself.
Trees are endowed with special symbolism in the works of Mihai Daskalu. They are present in almost all of his paintings. Now in the form of the main plot figures, then as a background. The tree in the work of Daskalu, in fact, symbolizes human life.
For the sake of Nedelchev
A key object in the work of the Bulgarian artist For the sake of Nedelchev is the road. Either this is an ordinary rural primer covered with knotweed, or a stone pavement of an ancient city, or a barely noticeable path along which hunters go into the snowy distance.
For the sake of Nedelchev - a recognized master in the world of naive art. His paintings are widely known far beyond modest Bulgaria. Nedelchev studied at the school of painting in the city of Ruse, and then went to Switzerland for European recognition, where he held his personal exhibition. For the sake of Nedelchev, he became the first Bulgarian artist, whose paintings were in the Paris Museum of Primitive Art. The author’s works have visited dozens of major cities in Europe and the world.
Stacy Lovejoy
Modern American artist Stacy Lovejoy gained recognition thanks to her unique style, in which the features of “naive”, abstract art and futurism were mixed into one bright and stunning cocktail. All her works are, in fact, a reflection of the real world in a kind of abstract mirror.
Sasha Putrya
Alexandra Putrya is a unique artist from Poltava. She began drawing at three years old, as if anticipating her early departure from life. Sasha died at the age of eleven from leukemia, leaving behind 46 albums with pencil and watercolor drawings, sketches, cartoons. Her numerous works contain anthropomorphic animals, fairy-tale characters, as well as heroes of popular Indian films.
Finally…
This art is called naive. But if you carefully look at the works of prominent representatives of the style, a logical question arises: are their authors so naive? Indeed, “naive” in this case does not mean at all “stupid” or “ignorant”. These artists simply do not know how, and do not want to draw according to generally accepted canons. They portray the world as they feel it. This is the whole beauty and value of their paintings.