Primitive used to be the term used for self-taught painters. I don’t object to the potential pejorative “primitive” for an artist as I see it as an asset. When Sidney Janis wrote and published his
Influential book “They Taught Themselves” it put a certain group of artists into a lauded category: The rare artist who was able to produce a mostly realistic and pleasing work without having
had the chance to study art. Think Grandma Moses, Victor Joseph Gatto, Lawrence Lebduska, Israel Litwak, Horace Pippin, John Kane even Henri Rousseau…you know. Some are “memory”or ”folk”
painters, others arejust doing their best. Flat, slightly “wrong” works which work. A friend and mentor who discovered and collected many self taught painters once told me “If it’s right (meaning a little wrong)
it doesn’t matter how old it is. This pair of paintings were painted in 1986. I was lucky to find them at a flea market (with flea market prices) and they are quite large. They are 30 years old and as fresh as the day they were painted.
Primitive painters develop their own little tricks to compensate for a lack of training. Subtle little characteristics. Using minute detail to attract attention like the bridge, making the most important element of the painting larger than the rest, a lack of perspective…you know it when you see it. I’m not showing the name of the artist here while I do a little research. He’s not the most important artist, but I don’t think he studied art and that makes him special to me.
Par of anonymous (as of now) primitive paintings, 1986. Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb
