The Naif Art China Debut: The Wonderful World of the Naif Painters at the Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum features 55 paintings by nine artists, including Henri Rousseau and Seraphine Louis. None of them received formal art training and they all had different jobs. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
The Jiushi Art Museum in Shanghai is hosting The Naif Art China Debut: The Wonderful World of the Naif Painters, which features 55 paintings by nine artists — Henri Rousseau, Seraphine Louis, Andre Bauchant, Camille Bombois, Dominique Peyronnet, Louis Vivin, Rene Rimbert, Jean Eve and Ferdinand Desnos.
Naif, or naive, art refers to works of fine art created by a self-taught artist.
This is the fourth exhibition under the Western Masters series following Edvard Munch, Marc Chagall and Giorgio Morandi. Since its founding, the museum has presented a summer exhibition from this series every year so that audiences of all ages, especially children, can learn about an important master, or in this case, a school in Western art, says Ma Zhenzheng, a cocurator of the exhibition.
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According to Alex Susanna, a Spanish poet, critic and co-curator of the exhibition, the naive painters are "among the best kept secrets of modern art", because they were mostly neglected during their life-time, when they were unjustly labeled as "amateur", "sloppy", "childish" or "incomprehensible".
Even today, many of these artists are still largely unknown to the public, except possibly for Rousseau, whose large paintings of jungle scenes are widely admired in major museums around the world.
None of the nine artists received formal art training and they all had different professions. Rousseau, for example, was a customs officer. Bauchant was a gardener; Bombois was a wrestler and strongman in a traveling circus; and Louis, the only female artist among them, used to be a maid.
First Prize, oil on wood by Dominique Peyronnet in about 1943. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
The common thread between these artists was that they were unrestrained by conventional rules in formal art training and had fearlessly defied the constraints of material, composition and visual logic. Ma adds that this group of artists simply followed their intuition and depicted the world as they perceived it, and this resulted in "unparalleled originality and uninhibited creativity".
Pablo Picasso, who once bought a painting from Rousseau for 5 francs in 1908, was among those who admired the unique approach of the naive artists, and this was encapsulated in his quote, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."
Today, naive art is widely recognized as an indispensable chapter in modern art history.
The school began to emerge at the end of the 19th century, coming after the post-impressionists and before the fauvists.
"There is some similarity between the naive painters' flattened imagery and the Tahiti paintings of Paul Gauguin," Ma says. "We will also find in the works of later artists, such as Henri Matisse, traces of influence from the naive painters."
One of the best ways to introduce to audiences in China who do not know much about this school of painting is through thematic sections, says Susanna, who selected 55 paintings from the collection of the Musee Maillol and the Dina Vierny Foundation, both renowned for their collections of naive art in Paris.
The Cliffs and the Sea, oil on canvas by Peyronnet in 1931. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
The first section, Sunday Tables, is about still life, a popular genre of painting during the 20th century. Here, visitors will learn about each artist's unique take on the subject.
The second section, The Life of Others, highlights the human form and its relationship to the environment, one of the key themes explored by the naive artists. In this section visitors will get to view subjects ranging from the sensual to the historical to the disturbing.
Most of the naive painters dabbled in portraiture. For Rousseau, Bombois and Desnos, the subjects were their loved ones. The others often painted historical or mythical figures.
All of these artists, except Rimbert, had come from other parts of France before settling in Paris, where they got invited to art salons and became recognized by critics and collectors. Paris was to them "the enchanted city", which is the title of the third section.
In the fourth section, titled Garden's Dream, visitors are greeted by Bauchant's Bouquet Pour Dina. Bauchant was the son of a gardener and had followed in his father's footsteps in managing a nursery. When World War I broke out, the garden was destroyed and he was enlisted in the army and appointed as a mapmaker for his artistic skills. He was stationed in Salonika, Greece, and this would later inspire him to create paintings from mythology and historical references.
Bouquet Pour Dina was dedicated to Dina Vierny, who used to be a model for the renowned sculptor Aristide Maillol and later opened her own gallery. She was fond of the naive artists, as evidenced by her art collection that had more than 300 paintings by them.
Still Life with Grapes, oil on canvas by Louis Vivin in 1921. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
However, the real star of this section is Louis, the female artist who created an entire world out of plant life, says Susanna. Influenced and inspired by religious art and stained-glass windows in churches, Louis created a unique and intensely expressive painting style known as "flower-and-leaf painting". She was working as a maid when her creations were discovered by the German collector Wilhelm Uhde.
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In 1929, Uhde organized the first major exhibition for the naive painters, during which the works of Louis gained great recognition and cemented her status as a representative female naive painter. But the turmoil of life affected her mental health and she was admitted to an asylum in 1932 with chronic psychosis, where she remained until her death in 1942.
The final section, Lively Nature, features Bauchant's imaginary forests inhabited by bears and monkeys, Vivin's hunting scenes and Peyronnet's depiction of the sea.
Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn
If you go
The Naif Art China Debut: The Wonderful World of the Naif Painters
Aug 1-Nov 12, Monday-Sunday, 10 am-6 pm (last entry by 5:30 pm).
Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum, 6F, 27 Zhongshan Dongyi Lu, Huangpu district, Shanghai.
The Leaf Bouquet, oil on canvas by Seraphine Louis during 1929 and 1930. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
