{"id":52239,"date":"2019-07-08T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T16:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/?p=52239"},"modified":"2024-04-18T05:50:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T12:50:02","slug":"design-trend-report-naive-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/design-trend-report-naive-art","title":{"rendered":"Design Trend Report: Naive Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

When someone calls your work naive art<\/strong>, take it as a compliment! While being called naive isn’t necessarily flattering, when it refers to design, it’s a different story. The entire concept of this unassuming approach to composition, which has earned the term naive art, has nothing to do with innocence, but everything to do with a rough-around-the-edges aesthetic<\/a> that communicates a refreshing, more natural take on composition and technique.\nTired of the same, old principles of good design<\/a>? Think they’re too restrictive and not creative enough? Looking for something more radical that turns the notion of graphical perspective completely on its head?\nIf you are, then naive art is the design movement for your sensibilities.\nThis movement’s creations have been compared to the simplicity and straightforwardness of children’s works. You may very well be surprised at the visual beauty and interesting framing that this design style produces.\n

<\/span>The History of Naive Art<\/span><\/h2>

\nWith a style such as this, exactly pinning down its origins can be a hit-and-miss affair. After all, this approach to art isn’t a purposeful one, as with established design trends like Art Deco design<\/a> or Swiss Design<\/a>. Rather, it’s all in how you define “naïve†for our purposes here.\nWe have two choices. We can either go by when this genre of design created by people with no formal education in art was actually accepted as a movement, or we can expand our concept of naive art to the point of prehistory. That is to say, when everyone seriously lacked any<\/em> formal training at all since we were all just cavemen and cavewomen scrawling cave paintings on the rock faces of our dwellings. By this second definition, everyone<\/em> who picks up a pencil and starts doodling away can be considered a contributor to this style, too.\nIf we go by the first definition, though, we have to set the history of naive art firmly at the feet of one Henri Rousseau. Rousseau was a French painter who got his start quite late in life: he only began painting with dedication in his early 40s and embarked on a full-time career by his late 40s. Known as Le Douanier, a riff on his previous career as a toll and tax officer, Rousseau began to be noticed by the French art world in approximately 1886, when he started to exhibit his artworks.\n\"\"\n<\/p>

Image Credit: Google Arts and Culture<\/a><\/h6>

\nHowever, because he is in effect the father of this design trend…you can probably guess that the response to his designs during his lifetime was…less than kind.\nIn particular, Rousseau came in for criticism for his infantile-looking artworks by the establishment critics of his day. When he began to display his paintings at the Salon des Independants, which was a series of huge exhibitions put on by an association of artists, they were at first not prominently displayed. Even so, they attracted derision from a great many people who had issues with his style of painting that came to define the naive art style in general. This was artwork that was characterized by a flat, childlike approach to composition, which led to reactions of either shock or outright mockery.\nThis type of establishment-critic and public-at-large ridicule echoes the way that the early Impressionists<\/a> were greeted when they debuted their style, which was characterized by painting outdoors and emphasizing natural light, to an unsuspecting public in 19th<\/sup>-century France.\nTo help you better visualize this aesthetic, here’s a look at some prime examples of naive-art digital assets, straight from our marketplace:

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<\/figure>\n \nAlthough he was widely disparaged during his career, it has to be pointed out that there were some isolated bright spots in the feedback he received, which pointed to the great potential naive art had, nevertheless.\nYears later, when a young Pablo Picasso came across a Rousseau painting that was being sold on the street (with the intention that it be used as a canvas to be painted over), he actually recognized the uniqueness in the naive art and went to meet Rousseau. In 1908, Picasso even held an honorary banquet in Rousseau’s honor, called Le Banquet Rousseau<\/em>. Notably, the list of attendees were some of the most significant in the art world at the time—such as Gertrude Stein, Leo Stein, Guillaume Apollinaire—indicating that those who knew design and art the best had a very good feeling about naive art in spite of the criticism coming at Rousseau.\nWhile Rousseau would never become famous for the style he invented, he was forced to play the violin in the street after retiring from painting to make ends meet, naive art still went on to influence many design trends that are even more famous, such as:\n<\/p>