Primitive artists of the 20th century. Primitivism - naive art
The style of primitivism in painting has found wide application. First of all, self-taught artists who did not have sufficient professional skills, but sought to show themselves and their vision of the world, became representatives of this trend. Like any other innovation, primitivism caused great artists who sought fame long years after training, they were dissatisfied with the new direction of painting, which did not take half of the life of the creators to polish their artistic skills. However, most art critics liked simple masterpieces, and primitivism nevertheless took its place in a huge variety of styles.
Features of primitivism
Primitivism in painting is characterized by a simplification of images: artists distort the world, which makes the paintings look more like ordinary children's drawings. However, the changes were made intentionally: through the illusion of simplicity and carelessness, one can see deep meaning works. As in all other artistic styles, details are important in primitivism - they carry the main semantic load.
Art brut
Art brut is an important branch of primitivism. A synonym for the definition is the term "outsider art." The works of this industry represent the world of the mentally ill or freaks who once moved away from society and plunged into a special reality. An important feature of art brut is considered complete absence clear boundaries between the fantasies of the artist and real life. abundance small parts suggests the thoughtlessness of life and vain haste modern world- this is one of the most common author's messages of art brut.
The opinion that no idea is hidden behind the naivety of the images is erroneous. Primitivism is saturated not with entourage, but internal state souls. It can be noticed only after careful consideration and analysis of the depicted details - a cursory glance is inappropriate here.
How to learn to correctly identify primitivism in painting
Primitivism does not exist without the naivety and spontaneous inspiration of the author. A person who encounters such stories for the first time experiences a feeling similar to nostalgia. Children's vision of the world lies in broken proportions, bright and saturated colors, deep moral overtones. A man in primitivism is more like a doll than a real character- it adds to his mystery.
The ability to pay attention to details and interpret them correctly is a real talent. When determining artistic style it won't be redundant. You can learn to understand the artist yourself. To do this, it is worth remembering several important criteria, noticing which it will be easy to distinguish works of primitivism from surrealism.
First, pure colors. The abundance of tones and semitones, chiaroscuro, depth of space - this is not primitivism. Naive art uses pure pastel colors or, on the contrary, overly bright shades. Secondly, broken proportions. If the picture resembles stylized illustrations for fantasy book So it's primitivism. Thirdly, mixing reality with fantasy ideas - primitivism in painting combines a calm landscape and too catchy colors, a person and incredible creatures.
Outstanding representatives of the primitivism style
Not only abstractionists and surrealists is full modern painting. Primitivism opened the way for many talented creators whose work had not previously been recognized. Among them are Babushka Moses, Henri Rousseau, Niko Pirosmani, Maria Primachenko, Alena Azernaya and many others. Pictures of the most famous primitive artists are kept in the Museum of Naive Art in Nice.
The world of childhood
Primitivism in painting occupies a special place. First of all, this is due to the unique ability of artists to immerse a person in the world of carelessness, naivety and spiritual purity. Despite the lack of art education among many primitivists, the paintings are filled with what most other areas lack so much: mood. Art lovers understand and appreciate this, which is why works in the primitivism genre are so popular.
Tivadar Kostka was born on July 5, 1853, in the mountain village of Kishseben, which belonged to Austria (now Sabinov, Slovakia) - a self-taught Hungarian artist.
His father Lasli Kostka was a doctor and pharmacist. The future artist knew from childhood that he would become a pharmacist. But before becoming one, he changed many professions—he worked as a sales employee, attended lectures at the Faculty of Law for some time, and only then studied pharmacology.
Once, he was already 28 years old, while in a pharmacy, he grabbed a pencil and drew on a prescription form a simple scene he saw from the window - a passing cart drawn by buffaloes.From that time, or even earlier, he firmly intended to become an artist, for this he tried to put together a small capital, which gave him material independence.
He wrote the following about himself: “I, Tivadar Kostka, gave up my youth for the sake of the renewal of the world. When I took initiation from the invisible spirit, I had a secure position, I lived in abundance and convenience. But I left my homeland because I wanted to see her at the end of my rich and glorious life. To achieve this, I traveled extensively in Europe, Asia and Africa. I wanted to find the truth predicted to me and turn it into painting.
It seems that the idea of becoming an artist persistently haunted Tivadar Kostka.
One day he goes to Rome, then to Paris, where he meets the famous Hungarian artist Mihaly Munkácsy.
And then he returns to his homeland, and for fourteen years he works in a pharmacy, trying to achieve financial independence. Finally, a small amount of capital has been accumulated, and one fine day he rents out a pharmacy and leaves to study, first in Munich, and then in Paris.
What follows is the well-known principle of constructing the fate of an unrecognized genius.
He realized that the skills that he would acquire in the course of his studies did not correspond to his perception. Therefore, he dropped out of school and in 1895 went on a trip to Italy to paint landscapes. Traveled throughout Greece North Africa and the Middle East.
In 1900 he changed his surname Kostka to the pseudonym Chontvari.
The value of his works has been questioned by many critics. In Europe they were exhibited (though without special success), but in his native Hungary, Chontvari was once and for all called crazy. Only towards the end of his life did he come to Budapest and bring his canvases there. I tried to bequeath them to the local museum, but no one needed them. In 1919, Tivadar Kostka Chontvari really went crazy and died poor, lonely, ridiculed and useless.
Having buried the unfortunate, the relatives began to share the good. And everything was good - only pictures. And so, after consulting with the "experts", they decided to scrap the canvases, like an ordinary canvas, and divide the money among themselves, so that everything was fair.
At this time, by chance, or not at all by chance (a strange coincidence, however!) A young architect, Gedeon Gerlotsi, passed by. It was he who saved the artist's creations, paying for them a little more than the junk dealer offered. Now the paintings of Tivadar Chontvari are kept in the museum of the city of Pecs (Hungary).
And just recently, one of the museum employees, in the process of examining Kostka's painting "The Old Fisherman", painted in 1902, came up with the idea of attaching a mirror to it. And then he saw that the picture on the canvas was not one, but at least two! Try to divide the canvas yourself with a mirror, and you will see either a god sitting in a boat against the backdrop of a peaceful, one might say, paradise landscape, or the devil himself, behind whom black waves are raging. Or maybe in other paintings of Chontvari, there are hidden meaning? After all, it turns out that a former pharmacist from the village of Iglo was not so simple.
Marc Chagall “Lovers” Primitivism You carry your hair towards me, and I, sensing your look and trembling, body trembling, I want to ask you again: where are my long-standing flowers under the wedding blasphemy, far away? I remember: the night, and you are near, and for the first time I lay down to you, and we extinguished the moon, and the flame of candles flowed, and ...
Frida Kahlo Still Life with a Frightened Bride, 1943 Primitivism The meaning of Frida Kahlo's work is always hidden deep inside. Taking a quick look at the picture, the viewer will never understand the meaning, because each object becomes a symbol. The bride is a small doll peeking out of a cut watermelon. The two parts of the watermelon shown in the picture are not two halves. They symbolize love and passion, which…
Mark Zakharovich Chagall "Blue House", 1917 Museum of Fine Arts, Liege Primitivism Vitebsk was Chagall's favorite city, a landmark place that the artist always remembered and cherished these memories. It is no coincidence that the painter had the opportunity to visit Soviet Union at the invitation of Furtseva, Chagall deliberately refused a trip to Vitebsk - he wanted to keep the old city in his soul, his city ...
Frida Kahlo "Broken Column", 1944 Dolores Olmedo Museum, Mexico City Primitivism, self-portrait In this picture, Frida expressed all the physical and heartache which I have experienced throughout my life. She contracted polio as a child, and in her early youth she was in a car accident and was bedridden for some time. Her spine was broken in several places, ...
Marc Chagall "I and the Village", 1911 Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Primitivism Thanks to the financial support of the capital's patrons, in 1910 Chagall ended up in Paris. The young artist, having wandered first from apartment to apartment, soon settled in a pavilion called "La Ruche", which means "Beehive". This wooden building housed over a hundred dirty, squalid, but cheap…
Henri Rousseau "Carnival Evening", 1886 Art Museum, Philadelphia Primitivism This is one of early paintings Rousseau, although he wrote it at the age of 42. Henri Rousseau worked as a customs officer until the age of forty and began to write only when he retired. A year before the Carnival Evening, he exhibited his copies of old paintings in the free Art Salon on the Champs Elysees ...
Frida Kahlo Girl with a Death Mask, 1938 Naive Art (Primitivism) Nagoya City Museum, Japan Frida Kahlo (Spanish: Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, July 6, 1907, Coyoacan - July 13, 1954, Coyoacan) - Mexican artist, wife of Diego Rivera. The influence of Mexican folk art, the culture of the pre-Columbian civilizations of America is very strong in the works of Frida Kahlo. Her work is full of symbols and…
Marc Chagall "Happiness", 1980 Paper, lithograph, 116 x 75.5 cm National Museum Marc Chagall, Nice, France Primitivism There is only one color in our life, just like on an artist's palette, which gives meaning to life and art. This is the color of love. - Marc Chagall.
Details Category: A variety of styles and trends in art and their features Posted on 07/24/2015 19:12 Views: 4998This trend originated in fine arts end XIX-beginning 20th century It's different deliberate simplification visual means and the appeal of artists to the forms of primitive art: primitive, medieval, folk, children's art.
Usually the concepts of "primitivism" and "naive art" are equated. But we strongly disagree with this, because naive art- this is the art of non-professionals, and primitivism is to a certain extent a stylization. We see "primitive" paintings by many artists who had academic art education or who have passed the school of painting from various masters. They had experience in other styles as well. These are, for example, Paul Gauguin, Mikhail Larionov, Pablo Picasso, Natalia Goncharova, Paul Klee, Kliment Redko, Yuri Vasnetsov and many others. Perhaps the work of such great masters is not entirely correct to call "stylization", this is their own style, which is based on the plasticity of primitive art. But their work cannot be called naive either, because primitive methods creative expression they chose deliberately, and not because of a lack of art education. For example, professional artist Sergey Zagraevsky from the very beginning of his creative activity retains the same characteristic style. We will call this style primitivism. And someone, perhaps, will argue with us and attribute his paintings to naive art.
Sergei Zagraevsky "Apple Orchard" (1992)
Of course, it is impossible to put the variety of creative ways of self-expression, handwriting and techniques into a certain style. Never artistic thought is not limited to the scope of style, once and for all chosen direction.
In this regard, I would like to recall the work of M. Chagall.
M. Chagall "White crucifixion" (1938). Oil on canvas, 254.3 x 139.7 cm. Art Institute (Chicago)
The painting was created by the artist under the influence of impressions from the persecution of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe. She is allegorical. The image of the crucified Jesus for Chagall is a new symbol - the Jewry experiencing mortal torments.
Symbolism, historicism and the ingenuous seriousness of primitivism are mixed in this picture.
Marc Chagall (1887-1985) 
Born in Vitebsk. He received a traditional home Jewish education. He studied at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, with L.S. Bakst in private art school E. N. Zvantseva, then continued his art education in Paris, where he met avant-garde artists and poets.
Wherever he lived: in St. Petersburg, Paris, USA - everywhere he remained the son of the Jewish people, but he always kept in his heart hometown, drawing its quiet streets and low houses. Vitebsk is called the second most important "model" of the artist. And the first was Bella, wife and muse - from 1909 until the end of her life.
M. Chagall "Over the city" (1918)
In Chagall, the conscious primitivization of plastic language is clearly visible, only in this form could he (and wanted to) express himself. He said this about his attempts to become an artist: “I guess I'm generally not amenable to learning. Or they didn't know how to teach me... I can only follow my instinct. Do you understand? A school rules I don't get into my head."
Chagall studied not only with the avant-garde artists - he also worked with the master of signs. In Vitebsk People's art school Chagall, together with the masters of signboards and their students, prepared the design of the city for the 1st anniversary of the revolution. The artist studied children's creativity. In his book "My Life" he writes: "I did not get tired of admiring their drawings, their inspired babble ...". In his works, especially in graphics, the features of a child's drawing appeared.
M. Chagall loved everyday scenes and filled them with fantasy, a premonition of a miracle, mythological symbols and animals.
At the origins of European primitivism are the works of P. Gauguin, A. Matisse, A. Modigliani.
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
A. Matisse - french artist and sculptor, leader of the Fauvist current. He was looking for his own path: first he painted in the spirit of impressionism, then he worked in the technique of pointillism (in the article "Post-Impressionism"), and later created a new style, entered the history of art under the name "Fauvism". For his paintings of the period of the beginning of the XX century. characterized by flat shapes, clear lines and less strict pointillism.
In 1906, Matisse visited Algeria and discovered the sculpture of the peoples of Africa, became interested in primitivism and classical Japanese woodcuts.
A. Matisse "Still life with oranges" (1912)
Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920)
An Italian painter and sculptor who worked primarily in the Expressionist style. But, having experienced the influence of many artists of the Parisian school (Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne, Picasso, Renoir), he absorbed their features. There are also echoes of primitivism and abstraction in his work.
A. Modigliani "Portrait of Maria Vasilyeva" (1918)
However, some art critics consider primitivism a stylistic disguise for expressionism. For example, the creations of the brilliant Austrian expressionist Oskar Kokoschka only remind specialists of folk pictures.
Painting by Oskar Kokoschka
Some artists of the early 20th century, belonging to various artistic directions and styles, there are works in the style of primitivism. Here are examples of these works.
P. Picasso "Dancer" (1907-1908)
M. Larionov "Officer hairdresser" (1909)
P. Klee "Acrobatics" (1923)
P. Gauguin "Yellow Christ" (1889). Canvas, oil. 91.1 x 74.3 cm. Albright-Knox Gallery (Buffalo)
This painting by P. Gauguin is considered one of key works in symbolism, but executed in the style of primitivism.
The boundless torment accepted by Christ contradicts the "invisibility" of this sacrifice by people. The artist turns to the "eternal" theme, trying to understand and explain to himself and others in his works the meaning of sacrificial service. main topic pictures - human alienation from both God and heaven. But even in the expression on the face of Christ himself, one can read not so much love for humanity as doubts about whether his sacrifice was in vain - His face reflects that stage of suffering that borders on apathy, indifference to everything around.
"Venus" by M. Larionov (1912), created in the style of primitivism, looks like a drawing on a fence, and even with an inscription. Of course, there can be no question of naive art here - this is an obvious and deliberate stylization, a mockery.
N. Goncharova "Round dance" (1910)
But the primitivism of N. Goncharova is expressed in the rough monumentality of peasant figures. Despite the artificial static nature of her images, N. Goncharova's paintings are full of powerful perpetual motion. Her primitivism is a variant of expressionism.
And now artists often turn to this style. The primitive is not bound by the tradition of the "school", it is free from canons, hence its immediacy.
Two varieties of primitive: popular print and romantic-idyllic - turned out to be long-lived. They continue to live in the primitive of our days.
D. Zavgorodniy "Strange Bull"
D. Zavgorodniy "Northern Lights"
) in her expressive sweeping works was able to preserve the transparency of the fog, the lightness of the sail, the smooth rocking of the ship on the waves.
Her paintings amaze with their depth, volume, saturation, and the texture is such that it is impossible to take your eyes off them.
Warm simplicity Valentina Gubareva
Primitive artist from Minsk Valentin Gubarev not chasing fame and just doing what he loves. His work is insanely popular abroad, but almost unfamiliar to his compatriots. In the mid-90s, the French fell in love with his everyday sketches and signed a contract with the artist for 16 years. The paintings, which, it would seem, should be understandable only to us, the bearers of the "modest charm of undeveloped socialism", were liked by the European public, and exhibitions began in Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain and other countries.
Sensual realism by Sergei Marshennikov
Sergei Marshennikov is 41 years old. He lives in St. Petersburg and creates in the best traditions of the classical Russian school of realistic portrait painting. The heroines of his paintings are tender and defenseless in their half-naked women. On many of the famous paintings the artist's muse and wife, Natalia, are depicted.
The Myopic World of Philip Barlow
In the modern era of pictures high resolution and the heyday of hyperrealism, the work of Philip Barlow (Philip Barlow) immediately attracts attention. However, a certain effort is required from the viewer in order to force himself to look at blurry silhouettes and bright spots on the author's canvases. Probably, this is how people suffering from myopia see the world without glasses and contact lenses.
Sunny Bunnies by Laurent Parcelier
Laurent Parcelier's painting is wonderful world in which there is neither sadness nor despondency. You will not find gloomy and rainy pictures in him. There is a lot of light, air and bright colors on his canvases, which the artist applies with characteristic recognizable strokes. This creates the feeling that the paintings are woven from thousands of sunbeams.
Urban Dynamics in the Works of Jeremy Mann
Oil on wood panels American artist Jeremy Mann paints dynamic portraits of the modern metropolis. “Abstract forms, lines, contrast of light and dark spots - everything creates a picture that evokes the feeling that a person experiences in the crowd and bustle of the city, but can also express the calmness that comes from contemplating quiet beauty,” says the artist.
The Illusory World of Neil Simon
In the paintings of the British artist Neil Simone (Neil Simone) everything is not what it seems at first glance. “For me, the world around me is a series of fragile and ever-changing shapes, shadows and boundaries,” says Simon. And in his paintings everything is really illusory and interconnected. Borders are washed away, and stories flow into each other.
The love drama of Joseph Lorasso
Italian-born contemporary American artist Joseph Lorusso transfers to canvas the scenes he saw in Everyday life ordinary people. Hugs and kisses, passionate impulses, moments of tenderness and desire fill his emotional pictures.
Village life of Dmitry Levin
Dmitry Levin is a recognized master of the Russian landscape, who has established himself as a talented representative of the Russian realistic school. The most important source of his art is his attachment to nature, which he loves tenderly and passionately and feels himself a part of.
Bright East Valery Blokhin
