naïve art

Unlike folk art, naïve art does not necessarily derive from a distinct popular cultural context or tradition; indeed, at least in the advanced economies and since the Printing Revolution, awareness of the local fine art tradition has been inescapable, as it diffused through popular prints and other media. Naïve artists are aware of "fine art" conventions such as graphical perspective and compositional conventions, but are unable to fully use them, or choose not to. Recognized, and often imitated, for its childlike simplicity and frankness. Paintings of this kind typically have a flat rendering style with a rudimentary expression of perspective. One particularly influential painter of "naïve art" was Henri Rousseau (1844–1910), a French Post-Impressionist who was discovered by Pablo 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. 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. 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.

• Illustration — Alfred Wallis, 1942, before Noah's Ark, Zander Collection • Illustration — Niko Pirosmani, Deer, 1901 While naïve art was often viewed (prior to the twentieth century) as outsider art produced by those without formal (or little) training or degrees, it is now a fully recognized art genre, represented in art galleries and academies 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 the Progressive 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 called pseudo-naïve. Whereas naïve art ideally describes the work of an artist who did not receive formal education in an art school or academy, for example Henri Rousseau or Alfred 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 of Autodidactism as a form of education in modern times. Naïve categorizations are not always welcome by living artists, but this is likely to change as dignifying signals are known. Museums devoted to naïve art now exist in Kecskemét, Hungary; Kovačica, Serbia; Riga, Latvia; Jaén, Spain; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Vicq and Paris, France. "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 (see Tribal art). This is distinguished from the self-conscious, "primitive" inspired movement primitivism. Another term related to (but not completely synonymous with) naïve art is folk art. The terms "naïvism" and "primitivism" also exist, and are usually applied to professional painters working in the style of naïve art (like Paul Gauguin, Mikhail Larionov, and Paul Klee).

German art collector and critic Wilhelm Uhde is known as the principal organiser of the first Naïve Art exhibition, which took place in Paris in 1928. The participants were Henri Rousseau, André Bauchant, Camille Bombois, Séraphine Louis and Louis Vivin, known collectively as the Sacred Heart painters.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, several Jewish artists in Israel were influenced by ancient art of the Middle East and thus were inspired to paint in a style reminiscent of naive art. Moshe Mizrahi Shah, a rabbi from Tehran who settled in Safed in the late 19th century painted biblical scenes inspired by the ancient arts as well as Eastern European Jewish representation. In the 1920s, when Ecole de Paris artist, Yitzhak Frenkel arrived to Safed he was influenced by Shah and created works depicting biblical scenes and figures, such as the Binding of Isaac. Frenkel's work was described by Israeli art historian Gideon Ofrat as a "historical Eretz Israeli encounter between popular art and so-called 'high' art".

• 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