Naive Art, or Outsider Art, refers to works by artists in sophisticated societies who reject or lack professional training. Naive artists create art with the same passion and intentions as trained artists, but work without formal knowledge of methods and training. Naive artwork is characterized by the use of bright strong colors, highly detailed images, and an absence of perspective (creating the fantastical illusion of forms and figures floating in space). Naive art represents memories, dreams, fantasies and scenes from every day life with an emphasis on color and shapes.
Naive is often associated with Folk Art, but they are very different because of the simple fact that Naive art is less concerned with social structures, political correctness, and traditions. Naive art emerged in the last fifty years as one of contemporary art’s most important styles because it has endured the ever changing styles around it, and remains generally the same. It is interesting to note that despite the large number of primitive or naive painters around the world, they all possess a distinct unity of style. Famous Naive artists include Henri Rousseau and Grandma Moses.
Grandma Moses
Grandma Moses, or Anna Mary Robertson Moses, was one of the first famous primitive artists, who didn't take up painting until she was 75 years old! Her desire to paint was triggered by her inability to do needlework anymore due to her arthritis. Anna Robertson was born in 1860 in New York, was married at the age of 27, and bore 10 children out of which only 5 survived. Anna Robertson was fiesty and strong willed and after the death of her husband in 1927 she moved back to New York from Virginia. The works of Grandma Moses were discovered by an art collector, Louis Calder, during the Depression when she was trying to sell some her pieces at the Women's Exchange.
Calder bought many of her pieces and by 1939 she had three showing in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. One year later she had her first solo exhibition in New York. According to the art world Grandma Moses's paintings were of Primitive or Naive style. She painted scenes on pieces of old wood with simple textures but complex content. She portray happy real life scenes, and her style echoed stitching on fabric from her earlier years. From the start of her painting career at the age of 75 to her death at the age of 101 Grandma Moses painted about 1600 paintings. Anna Robertson may have been an amateur but she contributed greatly to the Naive Art movement of the 19th and 20th centuries.
